Relationship With God

This message addresses a bit on social /human relationships but the ultimate focus is how to strengthen our relationship with God.
 

A relationship is a connection or association between two or more persons and it can be short term or long term. Humanly speaking, there may be 3 levels of relationship:

a)   Confidant: +These are people who know you deeply and you find it easy sharing with them your deepest issues at a personal level. It is normal to have one to 3 confidants. Jesus Himself had 3 confidants (James, John and Peter). Sometimes it’s possible not to have a confidant, especially in instances of having transition in life. Do not struggle to be popular to everybody and trying to make people confidant. It takes time to get someone you trust and can open up to. In confidant relationships, none of the parties expect give and take responses because the confidant loves you for who you are not what you can give or do to them. We are in the world, but not of the world and as human beings, we need confidants. Do you have a confidant? If no, belief God to send you one.

b)   Comrades: This is a less deep relationship than the confidant relationship and involves reciprocation of love and whatever is given. It is kind of give and take and people love you as long as they can gain from you and give to you in similar manner. A comrade may not know much about you. 

c)   Congregants: This is a shallow relationship, where the parties wait for help from the others, and do not do much to sustain the relationship. Love and giving are not reciprocated and one is loved purely for what they give to the others .The giver is like a donor without anything to receive back. Once you stop giving, the relationship dies.

Before getting to any relationship, one has to focus on 3 considerations.

1.   Who is this that you want to relate with? Knowing the one you wish to entrust your life to is critical. You cannot relate with God if you do not know Him. Who are you putting your life into? In human relations we should not focus on the physical, but on the inside; and ask yourself, who is the person in the inside of the potential ally? In connecting with God, If you feel far away from God, ask God who He is; seek Him, to know who He is. Study the Word, ask committed Christians who know who God is, to help you  know who He is. The fact that Moses knew the great I AM, he was confident to face Pharaoh. David had known His God and the powerful might and that’s why he had courage to trust Him and face Goliath. The 3 men,Shadrack, Misheck and Abednego knew their God well, no wonder the courage to agree to face the trial of being thrown in the fire furnace.

2.   What does this person expect from me? After knowing who you are relating with, find out what he/ she expects from the relationships. It is critical to know what God expects from you. The expectation of God from Adam and Eve was for them to obey Him by not eating from the tree in the middle of the garden. Failure to find out the expectations before delving deep in a relationship has caused pain and tears to people.

 

3.   What is your expectation of the person? The time we define our expectations we remain committed without uncertainty or disappointment. This keeps us from walking in blindness. 

The chapters we are about to read, describe a man by the name Asa who was a king and he underwent dynamic relationships with God. In every form of relating with God Asa experienced very notable results which will help us draw lessons of life. God takes advantage of  nobody; if you walk with Him, you will always celebrate. God is so real, and causes the dawn to come to those who have been in the dark. 

In the times we are living in, God is looking for people who will walk with Him. He is looking for people who will have a relationship with Him so deeply that people will not be able to differentiate them and God’s glory. He is looking for people to have a relationship with Him that is so deep that the people of the world will marvel at how we are, and come to ask us who our God is, that they may worship Him. We should put effort to fit in the ways of God, which we look like Him. I pray that God will cause us to shine with His glory. 

2 Chronicles 14:2 - 15

2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, 3 for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. 4 He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. 5 He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. 6 And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest. 7 Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. 8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor. 9 Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah. 10 So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11 And Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”

12 So the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. 13 And Asa and the people who werewith him pursued them to Gerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord and His army. And they carried away very much spoil. 14 Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them.15 They also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 15 

Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. 2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; 4 but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. 5 And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. 7 But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”

8 And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord. 9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

10 So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11 And they offered to the Lord at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought. 12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; 13 and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14 Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around.

16 Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. 17 But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

18 He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils. 19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa. 

It is interesting to read 2 chapters in one sermon and if time allowed, we would have read even chapter 16.

My prayer is that the relationship we have with God will be deeper and sweeter than that of a confidant. We should not only be excited about the blessings and forget the blesser. Our relationship with God should be an intimate relationship at all times. 

God is the author of relationship with Him. 

Genesis 1:26-28

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God created man to have a relationship with Him. By talking with man, He was defining how we get in a relationship. Even when Eve knew what God expected, she still took the relationships for granted, and listened to external and strange voice of the enemy. Eve listened to the serpent who was outside the relationship between her, Adam and God, more than she listened to God Himself and chose to disobey Him. 

God wants a relationship that is so deep that you will never walk alone. Just walk, as much as you have acknowledged the shepherd so well that you will not make a step without consulting your shepherd. As you acknowledge Him, He will order your steps as He is faithful. He will never leave you, nor forsake you.

Lets get back to the main text.
 

2 Chronicles 14:2

Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, 3 for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. 

We have an opportunity to do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord. Purpose to crush everything that does not please God. We know areas where that we need to change and destroy "idols", like Asa did in verse 3. Asa had victory as he kicked out the things that did not please God. This is when God gave him rest from all sides.

If you are troubled on all sides, check your relationship with the Maker. Some people are so bitter with themselves and other people. To remain close to God and relate with Him, identify where all the bitterness is coming from; just like bile spoils meat, any contamination of the heart will affect your entire life and destroy healthy relationship with God.. The Lord can give you rest and quietness, if you are obedient. 

2 Chronicles 14:5-7

5 He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. 6 And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest. 7 Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.

This made Asa be at a position at which he could concentrate on working for the Kingdom of God. Rest will only come if you are right with God, pleasing Him in all you do. It does not mean that when you are right with God, you will not be have some life  troubles; trouble and war will come, but God will fight for you because of the strength of your relationship with Him. Those who do not have a relationship with Him have the responsibility of fighting for themselves, while those who do have God have Him to fight for them. A relationship with God gives Him the right to fight for you. We have to learn what it means to enrich our relationship with God, which will help us receive from Him. You cannot touch someone who has a relationship with God and fail to experience God's wrath. 

Check your relationship with God by checking your thoughts. Ask God to consecrate your thoughts and renew your mind. Check the state of your mind. Kick sin out, and bring holiness back. Check your habits and behaviours. If you want to see your behaviour, check your friends' behaviours too.

This is an introduction of a very broad topic on relationship and we shall continue next Sunday.

Pastor Mary Mugo. 

(10/02/13 Sunday Service Sermon, Africa Transformation Mission. Pramukh Plaza, 6th Floor)

Pastor Mary Mugo is a Pastor at Africa Transformation Mission, a ministry under Christ Harvesters Ministries.