Yesterday I shared the illustration I shared with a friend who wanted to learn to abide in Christ. In doing that I kind of jumped to the bottom line. That is not where we started the conversation. I used an illustration to explain how we grow in our relationship with Christ.
I asked him how he got to know his wife. It was the typical stuff. Telephone conversations, dates, walks, talks, arguments, etc.
I shared that getting to know the Lord, abiding in Him, is much the same, but also different.
His girlfriend, now wife, was physically present. Christ is not. So the relational tools are different. We still carry on a conversation. Rather than picking up the phone we use the Bible, God’s Word to us, and prayer, our way of speaking to Him.
There are parallels with both relationships. There were conversations with his girlfriend that were unremarkable. That is part of any relationship. Same with God. There will be times we spend with Him that seem mechanical, stiff, whatever way you want to describe an unremarkable experience. But as with his girlfriend there are conversations and times that are overwhelming, mind blowing, the times that drew him to her and finally led him to ask to spend his life with her. Same thing with our relationship with God. There will be times that the Word seems to leap off of the page, that our time in prayer with Him seems especially rich.
As both relationships grow. As we get to know our partners the communication gets easier, richer, even to the point that we know what the other is going to say. Same thing with God. As we get to know Him, as we abide in Him and His Word, we begin to know His heart and we recognize His voice and we anticipate His Words.
It is no different, but it is.
I shared that getting to know the Lord, abiding in Him, is much the same, but also different.
His girlfriend, now wife, was physically present. Christ is not. So the relational tools are different. We still carry on a conversation. Rather than picking up the phone we use the Bible, God’s Word to us, and prayer, our way of speaking to Him.
There are parallels with both relationships. There were conversations with his girlfriend that were unremarkable. That is part of any relationship. Same with God. There will be times we spend with Him that seem mechanical, stiff, whatever way you want to describe an unremarkable experience. But as with his girlfriend there are conversations and times that are overwhelming, mind blowing, the times that drew him to her and finally led him to ask to spend his life with her. Same thing with our relationship with God. There will be times that the Word seems to leap off of the page, that our time in prayer with Him seems especially rich.
As both relationships grow. As we get to know our partners the communication gets easier, richer, even to the point that we know what the other is going to say. Same thing with God. As we get to know Him, as we abide in Him and His Word, we begin to know His heart and we recognize His voice and we anticipate His Words.
It is no different, but it is.
Good and helpful analogy, Mike. If I don't spend time with someone, I won't get to know much about him/her.
ReplyDeleteSame with God.
And that time must be in the context of the overall relationship; it covers both devotion (for my wife, my love for her, what I admire her for, my longings for and about her) as well as massive elements of daily life as we experience it together. And those experiences shape the nature of our relationship, our trust, our commitment to each, our dreams together, our failures and needs, etc.
That's why 45 years experiencing life together with the sufferings, the joys, the dailies that reveal deeper things about each other, produce a relationship that will never be duplicated with any other....
Other than with God. Neither, though, are automatic. And both take the work you outlined.