I love being a Christian. There is no greater privilege, no greater honor, no greater joy, than to be a child of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. I didn’t always comprehend this joy I speak of. As a young boy in Bible classes I believed there was a God; I joined my friends in singing songs to the praise of the Son of God (etc.), but I didn’t quite grasp the concept of a “relationship” with God. I could see, touch, hear, laugh with, and cry with my mother, father, siblings, and friends, but I could not experience those same things with God (for He is not a physical being; He is spirit, Jn. 4:23-24). It wasn’t until I was a little older that I began to comprehend what it meant to “walk by faith, and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). This is critical if we are to understand the true nature of the Christian’s relationship with the Lord. Truly, there are many people, even among adults, who do not grasp what it means to have fellowship with God.
So how does one have a relationship with the unseen God? Well, the answer to that question will take us beyond this short article, but truly it begins with a consideration of what God actually desires. God Himself seeks to have a relationship with us. He is not content with just being some supernatural power who oversees human existence from the backdrop of the created universe. Listen to Him. “…As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’ ‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’” Did you hear that? God wants to be a Father to us, and He wants us to be His children. He wants us to be a family. These are intimate terms.
Friends, if you have not thought about a relationship with God in these terms, then this series of articles is truly for you. So I encourage you to look for my future articles titled, “Fellowship With GOD,” as we continue to discuss how to develop a close, meaningful relationship with our Creator.