{"id":583,"date":"2011-07-17T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-17T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=583"},"modified":"2011-07-15T11:51:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T16:51:18","slug":"building-a-relationship-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=583","title":{"rendered":"Building a Relationship with God"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

God created us as relational beings.\u00a0 Humans long to connect with others.\u00a0 We want people to understand us, empathize with us, share our joy, feel our pain, and so on.\u00a0 In order for this to happen we slowly open ourselves up to others.\u00a0 We start laying a foundation upon which we can build a relationship.\u00a0 We give a little; they give a little.\u00a0 We talk a little; they talk a little.\u00a0 We listen; they listen.\u00a0 Anyone who has built and maintained a close friendship knows it takes time and effort.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, God is relational as well.\u00a0 He longs for a relationship with us.\u00a0 However, he will not force that relationship on us.\u00a0 He will beckon or encourage us to come to him.\u00a0 He will make himself available.\u00a0 He will love us.\u00a0 He will stand at the door and knock, but he won’t come in and fellowship with us unless we invite him. (Revelation 3:20)\u00a0 He initiates, but he will not force us to respond.\u00a0 That we must do on our own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How does one start this response process with God?\u00a0 Perhaps communication holds the key.\u00a0 Communication is a two way street.\u00a0 It’s a give and take process.\u00a0 We talk and he listens.\u00a0 He talks and we listen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We Talk and He Listens<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a fancy name for talking with God.\u00a0 It’s called prayer.\u00a0 It’s not quite as complicated as many would like you to think.<\/p>\n

The purpose of prayer is to communicate with God and build a relationship with him.\u00a0 If the only time we pray is when we feel guilty or when we feel a false sense of responsibility or when we want something from God, we shouldn’t plan on building much of a relationship.\u00a0 After all, how many close friends could we keep if these were the only times we talked to them? Communication with God means telling him how we feel from the heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since we don’t always feel the same way, our prayers will vary.\u00a0 Sometimes we might be angry or frightened. Sometimes we might be elated and joyful.\u00a0 Sometimes we are anxious and worried.\u00a0 Sometimes we are overwhelmed by God\u2019s goodness and full of praise.\u00a0 And we should always be able to find something to be thankful for.\u00a0 We talk to God just like we would talk to our most intimate friend \u2013 from the heart and often.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

If we approach prayer from the heart instead of from a legalistic view, it doesn’t have to be intimidating.\u00a0 We do not always have to pray kneeling for an hour at the same time every day, using the same words in the same tone of voice with a prayer list.\u00a0 I’m not saying this is necessarily wrong.\u00a0 I’m just saying we could do what the old gospel song says and “just have a little talk with Jesus.”\u00a0 We can talk to Jesus about everything!<\/p>\n

We don’t have to worry about what we say and in which order we say it.\u00a0 We could even just sit in silence, meditate and “commune” with God.\u00a0 Romans 8:26-27 says, \u201cIn the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.\u00a0 We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.\u201d\u00a0 Here’s the deal \u2013 God will help us to pray if we desire to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He Talks and We Listen<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how does God talk to us?\u00a0 Some would have you believe God “talks” directly to them and tells them to do something specific or God speaks through dreams.\u00a0 I think those are the exceptions, not the norm.\u00a0 Today God doesn’t generally talk to us through a burning bush.\u00a0 Usually, if we ask God to communicate with us, he will do so with what we come in contact with on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

For example, studying God’s word is a good place to start.\u00a0 The Bible is filled with God’s thoughts.\u00a0 If we are truly interested in his point of view, we will be reading it.\u00a0 The Bible is a living book.\u00a0 We can read the same scripture many times and think we totally comprehend its meaning.\u00a0 Then we will read it again and find some gem of understanding that had eluded us before.<\/p>\n

If we open our hearts to God, we might find him speaking to us through a sunset, a small child’s smile, a co-worker’s off handed comment, a friend’s concern, a quote we read in a book, various circumstances, or even our own conscious.\u00a0 It may come in the form of comfort, wisdom, or even correction.\u00a0 Since we are not all alike, God might communicate in different ways to each of us.\u00a0 The closer we are to God, the more we will hear and recognize his “voice” (John 10:4) when he speaks to us throughout our daily routine.\u00a0 God speaks, but we have to be willing to listen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We were created to be relational beings.\u00a0 Having a relationship requires us to communicate.\u00a0 That means we talk and they listen, then they talk and we listen.\u00a0 The same process works with God.\u00a0 Although it takes time and effort, it isn’t that complicated.\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be wise to try to build a relationship with the God who made us the way we are?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God created us as relational beings.\u00a0 Humans long to connect with others.\u00a0 We want people to understand us, empathize with us, share our joy, feel our pain, and so on.\u00a0 In order for this to happen we slowly open ourselves … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}