How to Have a Personal Relationship with God

To say that it is important to have a personal relationship with God is a gross understatement. As mortal beings, we are totally dependent upon God for our very existence. To be separated from Him is to be disconnected from the power of the universe. He is altogether self-sustaining and needs nothing from any other source.

He does not need our worship or our service, yet He requires that we give it. Why? Because worshiping and serving the greatest living Being in all existence, is the greatest joy that man will ever know.

The apostle Paul says that God is not far from any of us. He says we live and move and have our being in Him. He knows our thoughts and our intentions. We are His creation and He knows and understands us better than we could ever know and understand ourselves.

"O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD,you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it." (Ps.139)

God has made it clear in Scripture that He is not an impersonal force. He is a personal God and fully capable of a personal relationship with us. How can He have a one-on-one relationship with the billions of people that claim to have known Him down through the centuries? God is omnipresent, which means he's everywhere at once.

"Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me." (Ps.139)

How can we have a personal relationship with Him?

God is absolutely holy and does not hear the prayers of sinners. Since we are all sinners, this represents a huge problem for the entire human race. Through Satan, the first man (Adam) disobeyed God which plunged mankind into sin. God blocked the tree of life to prevent man from entering eternity until He solved the sin problem which He accomplished by His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Jews of that time had no idea that God Himself would be the Redeemer. They expected a strong leader who would deliver them from the oppression of Rome and lead them to victory against their enemies.

God was in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. (2Cor.5:19) It's the way God has determined to save those that belong to Him. Those who accept the Son accept the One that sent Him. Those who don't believe that Jesus is the only way to God are calling God a liar.

No one can enter the presence of the Father without Christ. God's greatness and holiness go beyond human understanding. No mortal can stand before God without the covering of Christ. He or she would be instantly incinerated. We must be born again or regenerated.

Paul says this is foolishness to the unbeliever. God is using the simple things to confound the wise. He is demonstrating His profound wisdom to angels and to the powers of darkness.

Those that accept the atonement that Jesus made on the Cross are clothed in His righteousness. It has nothing to do with the physical body. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom." It has everything to do with the destiny of our eternal soul.

So it is imperative that we seek a personal relationship with God which can only be accomplished through Jesus Christ the Redeemer. "No one comes to the Father but by Me." (Jn.14:9)

Having been born again, how do we go about developing a personal relationship with God?

The Bible says that the mercies of God are new every day. So we should begin each day by praying to the Father in Jesus' name for the grace and mercy to withstand whatever the day has in store for us. The Holy Spirit works to teach and guide us as the Scriptures renew our mind so we should study the Scriptures regularly. And as we apply what we learn in Scripture to our lives, God begins a work in us that conforms us to the image of His Son.

Before long we begin to see God working in our lives and we can't help but be humbled by it. Our prayers become longer and more intense. Our hunger and thirst for righteousness begins to grow. Bible study begins to take the place of television as our priorities begin to change. It is a process that destroys the old self as the new creature is being created.

God knows that we are mortal and that there are things we can't understand. He doesn't expect us to understand everything. "The secret things belong to God." (Deut. 29:29) However, He does expect us to accept the One He sent, namely Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world. The Father spoke from a cloud and said, "HEAR YE HIM!" (Lk.9:35) This is not a request or a suggestion. It is a direct command from the Father.

The way in which salvation is accomplished is that one comes to realize the truth of the Gospel, which is, "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." (1Cor.15)

Therefore, we must believe the testimony that God has given us concerning His Son and trust Jesus as our Savior. Pray to the Father each day in Jesus' name. Study the Bible which is inspired by God and from which we learn how to live and serve and grow in spirit. God will do the rest.

"...this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1Jn.5:9-12)