Building a History with God
Filed under: Christianity, End Times, Featured, Intimacy, Knowledge of God, Prayer
God is really pressing some things on my heart lately. This is one of them and I wanted to share it with you and encourage you in your pursuit of God. Many of you may have this reality pressing on your heart already, and for some this may be something that isn’t normally talked about. So please share your experiences and thoughts on this pressing issue because I feel its an issue that God is really highlighting in this hour of history.
Without a history, it’s sooo easy to cut and run.
It is very easy to leave someone or a group of people if you do not have a history with them. If you are not really connected relationally when troubles come it is sooo easy to just cut and run because of the lack of ties you have. This is what happens to many relationships within the church, and I believe it is why so many people leave the church.
The more history you have the stronger your cord becomes that is tieing you to that relationship. It’s like a rope that is tied to each of us. The more you build relationally together the stronger that rope is. It becomes thicker and thicker. Usually that rope will start out as a small piece of thread which can be easliy torn apart with two hands and even kids scissors. But the more history that is built with good communication and good relationship building the stronger and thicker that tie becomes, and it is not easily broken at all.
2 things that I see that help strengthen the ties we have to one another are:
- Consistant Honest Communication
- Consistant Personal Relationship Building
If you do one without the other you will be creating and building very weak ties that do not have the strength to endure the hard times, which will always come. We must be able to be honest with each other, speaking truth in love and do it consistantly. We must also build relationally and go deep in relationships, not just surface level or else those relationships will not be able to withstand the honest communication that sometimes hurts to hear.
This brings me to my next point.
It is CRITICAL that we have a history with God
Trouble is coming, and it is vital that we have a history with God. We must start building our history with God now, so that we can have strength to stand. Jesus says in Mark 13:33 to “watch and pray,” to be ready, prepare your hearts. The way to build our history with God is to pray and stand fast consistantly in prayer and the word. Cut out the other things in our life and make time to get to know Him. It all usually comes down to time and money.
Will you have strength to stand?
For when the time comes will you have strength to stand? Your meeting with Jesus at the altar 5, 10, 20 years ago will not be enough to keep you strong. They will not be handing out free strength when trouble comes, you must cultivate it. You must continually keep oil in your lamp.
A time is coming when those who do not have a history with God, even though they met Him at the altar years ago, will fall away from Jesus because they are offended at Him. They are offended because they did not know that He would do the things He will do and lead the way He leads.
In 2 Thes. 2:1-3 Paul says “1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled…3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first…”
Yes, even Christians will be offended at Jesus.
I do not want to be offended at Jesus when He comes for lack of knowing what to expect. I want to know Him, I want to build my history with Him now. But Jesus said in Matthew 24 that many will be offended, “but he who endures to the end shall be saved.” We need strength to endure, and that can only come through prayer, continual prayer and encountering Him daily through His word.
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March 24th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
I’ve witnessed this happen recently at my church. People that we as a body have prayed life into when they were literaly on their death bed and rejoiced with when they were completely healed from life threatenig diseases. People who seemed to be committed to the cause of Christ and I have watched them grow and be set free of so many things over the years. Left over an ofense that spread through a little click that had formed and they all suddenly heard from God and we’re suppose to move on (whatever that means). I guess my point is we have to really love and get to know the people we “fellowship” with on Sundays. We can’t get so busy doing the work of the ministry that we forget about building strong relationships with one another and with Chirst. The main difference between the ones who left and those that have stayed is the ones who stayed have invested more than time and money but have invested something of themselves and they know and understand that God is not the author of confusion and when he leads you out he leads you out in peace. So I agree that true communicaton and the building of real brotherhood anchored in the true knowledge of God our Father is what builds that history.
March 24th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I have known that in relationships we can’t only be open and honest, but we have to spend time together fellowshipping, otherwise we are just mere acquaintances.
I have never thought of our earthy relationships being a mirror to what our relationship with God looks like. If I only want to spend time with Him in prayer, but never hear the communication of His heart then I am focusing on relationship building. If I only want to find out the “how to’s” of pleasing Him and never pray then I am focusing on the communication. Either approach by itself is incomplete and leaves my relationship with God as superficial at best.
March 25th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I find it very funny that our pastor spoke on this very topic using this very same analogy in the Sunday sermon.
March 26th, 2007 at 8:51 am
You know, I had completely forgotten about this post when I wrote my post last night on the necessity of friendship and what it’s produced in my own life. It’s funny how God emphasizes different aspects of the same thing to different people. Yet another example of why we need each other in our lives!
On the topic of building a history with God, one MAJOR trend in my history with God over the past few years has been in the area of financial provision. There have been may instances where I had a serious financial lack (many due to bad stewardship, but that’s a different topic!). But regardless of whether the situation was of my own making or something beyond my control, God came through provided for me every single time.
What’s funny in light of that is that my 1st reaction to financial crisis is still panic, not faith. I suppose that’s why I keep encountering these situations-God is building a history with me in this specific area. The end result will be faith for God to release supernatural financial provision, not only in my own life, but in the lives of people and in ministries. Or at least, that’s what I’m believing for!
March 26th, 2007 at 10:42 am
@ Nicole: I think thats an excellent example of a real world situation when you said that:
and…
Sometimes we think that our “church” or “ministry” relationships will be good enough only to being built on the days we “do ministry” together. But we must go deeper on a personal level or else when offense comes knocking (which it always will)… we will be opening the door and inviting it in to dine with us.
And it’s the same way with Jesus now (when trials come) as well as in the end (leading up to the day He returns). If we don’t go deep on a consistant, day in day out basis and build our foundation strong in honest communication and personal relationship building, then when a family member dies or we lose a job or some other crisis happens (which will happen), we will get offended at Jesus… asking where were you? Not knowing that He knows what He’s doing and we must trust Him.
March 26th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
@Jen: I feel you on the financial thing. I’ve finally gotten to a place where I don’t panic but I still don’t have the kind of peace that I know I should have after I’ve prayed. I still feel like there is something more I can do but eventually I chill out and remember how God has always come through for me and done above and beyond what I was believing for. I guess its hard to trust that God will rescue us (especially when we’ve been bad stewards) but I must rest in the fact that it is not God’s will for his children to do without and so as long as we are trying to be faithful stewards His grace swoops in to save us in our time of need.
@Adam: This relationship thing is probably the key to seeing the unity in the body that we’ve been praying for and seeing the lost come into the Kingdom. So I’m going to do what I can to be more friendly to visitors and find ways to spend time with people outside of church, IHOP, and work. The hardest will probably be work since I’m the only Christian here and their idea of fun is happy hour and they no longer invite me out because I never want to go. I went salsa dancing with them once but that was last fall. I guess every now and then I can go out with them and drink Gingerale if it will help build a relationship that says Chrisitans can have fun too and show that I care about them and will be there if they need help or someone just to pray for them.
March 26th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Man adam. Just keep it coming with the intense topics bro. But yea having honest communication and building relationally are VERY important. Those that i am closest to, i rebuke them they rebuke me, it has to be like this, otherwise we wont grow in our relationship, afraid to tread on each other’s bad sides or what have you. I like people to be honest with me and not sugarcoat something. I expect to be the same with others but sometimes people get offended when you say something and actually do it. Especially here in tallahassee, sometimes you run into others that dont expect you to actually do what you say you would. Especially being brothers and sisters in christ we should be able to tell each other the truth and not fake anything. Like stephanie was saying, not only being honest and open, but going beyond the normal time we spend with each other at church, events, or wherever. Also out of spending time with each other, and walking in honesty and truth can we begin to cultivate an environment of worship of jesus. If one or more persons are lacking in their relationship with jesus and they constantly “loaf” with other christians that are about their heavenly father’s business on a constant and ever present basis, then they will do one of two things depending on how much they have at stake in the relationship(s). Learn how to press deeper into a relationship with god or run. But we won’t be able to press deeper into knowing him and carrying our worship outside of ihop, church, etc. without getting into each other’s lives and faces, being introspective and truly caring about each other’s relationships’ with god and not letting someone spiritually underachieve and slip. i heard somewhere that you are only as strong as your weakest link in a group, so if one person is thirsting for more of jesus, this must be spread.