3 Key Ways You Can Start Building a True Relationship With God Today!
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Are you building a relationship with God and spending quality time with Him each day? Think about the time you spend with family and friends. That is communing with them and building a stronger relationship with them!
Are we communing with God? Are you building a personal relationship with God or are you just mowing His lawn?
Mowing His lawn?? Yes! I DID mean to say that!
Learn what I mean by that by reading on!
Updated and republished from 2/12/2020
Relationship Involves Personal Communion
What is personal communion?
Personal communion is defined as “the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.” It is friendship, kinship.
When we hear the word “communion” we tend to think of it as the physical act of taking the bread and wine at church. But communion is spending time with someone in conversation, physical expression, and so on.
Every conversation we have with friends is communion with them.
When you speak to your parents, you are experiencing communion with them. Every time you spend time with your spouse, sharing your day with them, is communion.
It is a verb as well as a noun!
But many times, when it comes to God, we focus on the noun and not the verb. We focus more on the act of taking communion than building a relationship with God that we should also partake in.
Think of any meaningful relationship you have with someone, whether a spouse or child. When you are in a close relationship you naturally want to do things FOR the person do you not?
Building a relationship with God will naturally cause us to do FOR Him, like in the story I am about to share with you about two sons!
An Example of Building a Relationship With God in a Tale of Two Sons
This is not the two sons you may be thinking of.
No, these are two different sons, not mentioned in the Word. In fact, I made these two sons up.
Picture a father who has two sons.
One son comes to the house each week and mows his father’s lawn. He goes and does the grocery shopping for him and runs errands for him.
The son may see if the father needs anything else and happily does what he can for him. The father, sensing his son’s desire to get on with his own business, tells him he’s good.
They say their goodbyes and the son tells him he’ll be by next week to do it all again.
Sounds like a wonderful, doting son right?
But then let’s look at son number two.
This second son comes to the house and makes the father a cup of coffee, sits down in the living room with him and asks how his week was.
The father tells him all about the people he spoke to that week as he went about his business.
They laugh and share stories about when the son was a little boy. They may talk a bit about Mom and how they miss her.
The son shares with his father how his job is going.
He may talk about the girl he met that he really likes!
The father may ask him to bring the girl by if “things get serious”. They chuckle a bit and share more stories.
The father mentions his shoes are getting kind of worn out, so the son drives the father down to the store and they pick him out a new pair.
When he brings him home, the son makes dinner for his father and sits down and eats with him. They watch a movie together! He knows his father loves to laugh and so he picked out a great comedy for them to watch.
Then the time comes for the son to go home.
He gives the father a big hug and tells him he will see him next weekend and maybe they can go fishing if the weather is nice!
They say goodbye and the father heads to bed, happy for the time he got to spend talking and sharing with his son.
Are You Building a Relationship With God or are You Just Mowing His Lawn?
Both sons in this story are good sons!
They both love their father, they both take the time out each week to go to his house and make sure he’s doing ok.
The father appreciates BOTH sons and loves them equally!
But son number one was focused on DOING for the father.
He was focused on the obligatory tasks he had to do as a son.
He didn’t really stop and enjoy his father or let his father enjoy him. There was no sharing; just doing.
But son number two took the time in communion with his father. He did do some tasks for him! He took his father to the store, he made him dinner, he thought ahead of time about what his father might like to watch.
But the most meaningful part of this encounter with the second son, the most memorable time, was the time spent laughing, telling stories, and sharing life together!
Are you just mowing God’s lawn?
Are you spending time on building a relationship WITH God or are you merely doing things FOR God?
Yes, there should be things we should do for the Lord! Even Jesus said, at a very young age in Luke 2:49:
He said to them, “Why were you searching for Me? Didn’t you know that I must be about the things of My Father?”
CJB
James 2:14-17 in the Apostolic Writings (New Testament) says:
What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do?
Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.
CJB
Faith without works is dead. We NEED to have works so that we can be about our Father’s business here in our time on this earth! We cannot just sit at home and take comfort in our salvation.
But if all we do is work FOR God without spending time WITH God, then we are not in relationship.
Are you spending time with the Father or just ‘mowing His lawn’?
As a blogger, I can tell you I have to be VERY careful about how my time is spent.
I could easily fall into the “doing” of my ministry and feel like I am serving God well, but God wants His daughter to spend time WITH Him too.
Faith without works is dead. We NEED to have works so that we can be about our Father’s business here on this earth! We cannot just sit at home and take comfort in our salvation. Share on X3 Key Ways to Start Building a Relationship With God Today!
So how can you begin to ensure you are spending time WITH your Father, in conversation, in communion, learning more about Him and the things He wants for us?
Well, here are three key ways we can make sure we are making Him a key part of our day-to-day lives.
1. The Ultimate Self-Care Guide – Prayer
There is so much talk these days about the importance of self-care. Whether you are Christian or not, you have likely seen and read articles about self-care.
Let me offer to you here the ultimate self-care guide. This is the self-care guide that should come before any other! A self-care guide that should be the foundation of everything you do to take care of yourself or others.
Are you ready for this first step? This is big!
Shocker right? (I am being facetious of course!)
Daily prayer is the ultimate self-care guide. It is (or at least should be) the foundation for everything else we do in our lives.
Prayer is spending time with our Father, not just doing for Him!
When we spend that time with Him in prayer, we can be filled! We can receive the help we need!
Prayer is the Master Key and the Key to the Master!
Prayer, along with a study of the Word, is not only the master key to all things but it is the key to the Master Himself.
We grow in building a relationship with God, not by doing things we think He wants us doing, but by going to Him and being fed.
How do we know if the works we are doing are what God wants us to spend our time on (or if we called to them) if we don’t seek Him first?
Prayer is the Master Key and the Key to the Master!
We can be like the first son and believe “doing” for our Father is showing love or we can take the time out to have personal communion with Him AND also doing for Him!
Like most other things in life, balance is needed.
God is not telling us to be so heavenly focused we are no earthly good.
He is telling us that to be effective IN the world, we need to go to the source to be refreshed and renewed.
The love of God is our source and we don’t get that from doing works. We get that from time with Him. We get that from an intimate relationship with Him.
How did the second son know his father liked comedy movies? By spending time with him.
How do we know what direction God wants us to take? By spending time with Him, through prayer and His Word!
Let’s not just “mow the lawn” but stop in and spend time with our Father in personal communion with Him.
Let’s just rest in His presence, put our head on His shoulder, and just love on Him!
Let’s be about the business of building a relationship with God and not just doing FOR Him! That part will come naturally from the relationship!
Prayer is the master key and the key to the Master! #prayer #praying Share on XIf prayer is something you struggle with, learn more about the ACTS Prayer Method below!
2. Study the Word
Getting into God’s Word is the best way for you to learn more about Him and His character.
The way we get to grow close to another person is to spend time with them and also by observing them.
I know how my husband will react in certain situations, what opinions he will have, how he will feel about things that come up in life.
I know this because I have observed him for a long time.
When it comes to God, the way we “observe” Him is through His Word. We see how He responds to people, the instructions He gives, the blessings He promises.
It is our lens into His character and His great love for us.
When it comes to God, the way we “observe” Him is through His Word. We see how He responds to people, the instructions He gives, the blessings He promises. It is our lens into His character and His great love for us. Share on XStudying the Word and not just reading it is a great way to really dig in to who He is.
Memorizing Bible verses helps us to recall His Words at any time when we may need them. I have had God speak to me through a verse I was able to recall that fit the situation I was in.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says:
All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed.
TLV
King David said in Psalm 119:11
I have treasured Your word in my heart, so I might not sin against You.
TLV
If you find Bible study intimidating, I have a great, free method to share with you called the SOAP Bible study method. You can learn more about it at this post and you can sign up for a free SOAP Bible study workbook below!
3. Staying Connected to Other Believers
The Word says we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together but that doesn’t just mean walking into a church or synagogue building each week and then going home and going on with life. Faith life is not something that we are supposed to just do on Saturday or Sunday.
Our Bible isn’t supposed to come down for church and then go back up on the shelf until next week.
We were CREATED for fellowship. We were created for fellowship with other human beings as well as for fellowship with our Heavenly Father.
Developing meaningful relationships with others who share our faith is so important because it helps us to stay accountable, it gives us study partners, people to seek godly counsel from and people to socialize with who will not lead us in the wrong direction.
These people can help us become a better person ourselves through their good example. BUT you have to choose your relationships wisely. I have learned that what Jesus Christ Himself said is so true.
Matthew 7:21 says
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
TLV
So not everyone who claims Jesus as Lord of their lives has the Spirit of God in them and lives accordingly.
I have come across this multiple times in my own life where I will “hang out” with someone because I met them at church, I felt they were a believer because that is what they portrayed themselves to be AT church (this was before I was near a Messianic Jewish congregation) but then when I spent personal time with them, they were totally different and lead life in a way that I thought, being early on in my own faith, could be a stumbling block for me.
The good thing and the important thing was that the Holy Spirit thankfully gave me the wisdom to get out of that friendship before it really developed.
And when you keep your closest relationship with God Himself, He will direct you in just that way, through His Spirit. He will give you wisdom and discernment and the more you relate to Him in that way, the more attuned you become to hearing His voice.
Finding another believer that has strong faith and that you can build a healthy, good relationship with – OR finding a group of believers like a life group – and can do Bible studies together and can share daily life together and pray for each other, that is what we need.
We need to do spiritual life with others, not alone!
THIS will help us in building a relationship with the Father!
Building a relationship with God is simple. It is devoting time to Him as Father and just basking in God’s presence.
Share with us in the comments different ways you have found to help with building a relationship with God and drawing closer to Him and just being in His presence!
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CJB – Taken from the Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. Copyright © 1998. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029. www.messianicjewish.net.
Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.
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