Who Is Your #1 Relationship With?
The book of Psalms is a very popular book in the Bible. Many of the Psalms are people crying out to God in desperation. I believe that many of us go to God when we are suffering, but we struggle to go to God with the same devotion when things are well and life is looking up. So many people today struggle to stay consistent in their walk with God – I’ve been there. This isn’t new, this has happened all throughout history, since the days of Abraham
“But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion, you delivered them time after time.”
The Israelites were praying to the Lord about the sins of their ancestors and reminding God how good and faithful He had been. As soon as they were at rest, they chose to do what is evil in the eyes of God. When they were in disarray and in desperate need of God, that was when they cried out to Him. They cried out to Him again and again and they were persistent in their suffering, but they weren’t persistent in when they were at rest. Suffering drives us to get out of our situation.
Suffering drives us to go to God because we know that we need God’s help to get out of situations. When we are at rest we can do evil, and I think one reason why we stop being persistent is because we stop being desperate for God. You see, He is compassionate when we persistently cry out to Him- despite what we may have done in the past.
Time and time again God delivered His people, even though each time they went back to their wicked ways. This is how compassionate He is. He hopes for the best. He sees the good in us. He has hope that we will do good all whilst knowing we will do wrong. God is love. How many people hear their child calling out for them and aren’t moved to compassion? We are His children and when we cry out to Him, His heart is genuinely moved. God has real feelings, real emotions. He feels compassion, sympathy, empathy and love. Do we have those same feelings towards He? It leads me to ask: how well do you really know God?
I had a nice long break over Christmas. I was chilling. I was at rest. I was watching TV, playing Sims and doing work here and there, but as soon as all the work was over, I was completely at rest. I had nothing to do but chill. It didn’t take long for me to become complacent and no longer cry out to God.
There were multiple mornings where I woke up and I actually didn’t want to go and spend time with God, I wanted to hop straight on my laptop and start playing Sims. I had stopped seeking God with all my heart because I was at rest. How many of us can relate to this? How many of us cry out to God when we’re feeling sad but ignore Him when we’re feeling happy?
We all want an easy life, a fun life, a good life. But what if that life leads us to sin? I know that I need some element of pressure. I always need to be pushed, stretched, be working towards something… If I don’t, I get lazy, I get complacent and I neglect God.
How is your relationship with God? Are you close and connected with Him? Are you spending quality time with Him every day? As soon as you stop seeking God with all your heart, that’s when sin starts to creep in. Or, is there sin in your life that you’re struggling to overcome? Seek the Lord with all your heart and it will be so much easier to resist the sin.
Many of us have busy lives and have great difficulty making time for God, but I can attest that He loves us and wants to hear from us. Four years ago, I decided to embark on my journey with Him. I started off with just reading my Bible for 20 minutes every morning (Psalm 5:3, Mark 1:37) and having a quiet time. I followed a basic structure:
S = scripture
O = observation
A = application
P = practical
I simply started reading the Gospel of John and made notes. After four years of praying and having quiet times, I have grown tremendously in my faith and re-devoted my life to God. In these 4 years of simply seeking God whole-heartedly, I’ve overcome drug and alcohol addiction, overcome mental health challenges, been baptised, and joined a mission team. All this is a result of pursuing my relationship with Him with all my heart. I didn’t stop seeking God when my life got better, I kept going after God, every day, all the time.
I want to encourage you, cry out to God persistently. Be active in your relationship with Him. Study your Bible and actually live it out in obedience, God will bless it.
TRENDING
