A thriving relationship with God is the recipe for a great life. God as our creator knows how best we ought to live and has laid it out for us well in His Word, as we communicate with Him in prayer and while we fellowship with other believers.
Let’s have a deeper look into these three ways we can cultivate a deeper relationship with God and feel connected to Him throughout our day.
- Prayer is simply communicating with God; talking to Him and listening to Him. You can talk to Him silently or out loud. You can talk to God at any time of the day or night for He never sleeps. You can write Him a letter or a song. God knows us completely and so it is a waste of time to pretend with Him. Talk to Him as you would your dearest and closest friend. Pour out all your feelings just as they are. And when you pray, pose and allow Him to respond. Allow Him to speak to you as well. Is discerning the voice of God easy? Not in the beginning, but the more time you spend in prayer, the easier it will be to clearly know when He is speaking to you and how He speaks. Do not wait for the perfect time or place to speak to Him, but rather have conversations with Him through the day. Jeremiah 29:12 says, Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. We have the assurance that He hears us.
- Reading the Word. Search the scriptures for all that God wants to tell you is there. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. All the wisdom and instruction we need for life is found in God’s word. Find a convenient time, place and tool that you can use to study scripture on a daily basis and then commit to make it happen. Get yourself a daily devotional, a bible reading plan or join a bible study to help you study God’s word in a structured way.
- Fellowship. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. A great way to keep each other accountable on this Christian journey is walk through this life journey with like-minded believers who can encourage not to fall off the path of following Jesus. Be willing to open up your life to others, to be vulnerable, as well as to be there for others. No man is an island and “doing life” with like-minded believers makes our days brighter. Even while we go through the pandemic we can still rely on online meetings and some physical meetings while following SOPs to still meet one another in fellowship.
I pray that as you try to make these habits an essential part of your life you will trust that God through the Holy Spirit will be your help. You are not alone. God desires an intimate relationship with us more than we can ever imagine and it is ALL FOR OUR GOOD. Let us be confident that He who started a good work in us will see it to completion (Phillipians 1:6).
