Deepening your relationship with God
‘How can a person deepen their relationship with God?’
The more you get to know someone of excellent character, deep reliability and a generous nature, the more you admire them and want to spend time with them. By contrast, when someone lets you down or gossips about others, you know it is unwise to trust them. A superficial person makes for a superficial friend who is unlikely to stick with you.
If you know anything about God, you know that He is faithful, that He is for you and wants you to share your life with Him in the deepest possible ways. You cannot surprise or shock Him away from loving you, and deepening your relationship with God can only make you stronger.
So if you want to deepen your relationship with God, here’s some suggestions:
How to deepen your relationship with God
Walk
- Time – spend time with Him just as you would with others you want to know better.
- Mindfulness – practice mindfulness so that you recognise his hand in the diversity of creation around you. Marvel at the birds, the clouds, the stars, nature and the faces of people.
- Senses – use your all your senses in becoming aware of his goodness.
- Listen – hear Him speak as you read the Bible to understand his ways, to learn to distinguish right from wrong and to recognise his voice
Talk
- Two way – relationships grow through conversation. Praying is simply conversation, talking with God as you would with your best friend. and it can happen in all sorts of ways but it is simply talking with God as you would with your best friend.
- Questions – it’s OK to be blunt. God does not like pretence so the honesty of a returning prodigal is a good starting point. Alongside this, the frankness of Job and the faith of Mary to know that with God nothing is impossible.
Share
- Passions – Hopes and dreams that motivate you
- Problems – Doubts and fears that shackle you
- Personal – Joys and sorrows of your inner life
- Performance – Successes and failures that occupy your mind knowing we can’t impress God or disqualify ourselves from coming into His presence
Love
- Chosen – Know that you have been chosen by God to be his adopted and beloved child
- Intimacy – You can call Him Abba Father which is the most intimate term, as if it was ‘Daddy’ or ‘Papa’
- Strong – this love is so strong that nothing can separate you from God, ever
Trust
- Deeper – as you walk, talk, share and love, your trust will grow to be like the child who is totally uninhibited
- Experience – in the quieter times and the noisier times, it is your experience of God with you that will build trust and depth of relationship, even when things don’t go as you expect or want.
- Learn – God knows best and works all things together for your good
A superficial approach to God leads nowhere
The superficial approach to God is the way most people choose. It leads nowhere except emptiness.
‘My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne – to beat her down, hide her’ – Anne Frank
‘If you can understand the inner life, then you can wear the uniform, the tattoos, or whatnot and realize that the things that are different about us become superficial’ – Ethan H Hawke
Bible verses to help you build a deeper life with God
A few helpful Bible verses to help you hear His call to the deeper life with Him:
No Pretence: ‘The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’ – 1 Samuel 16:7
Honest Personal Assessment: ‘Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first’ – Revelation 2:4
Relationship Implications: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth’ – Revelation 3:16
Open Invitation: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened’ – Matthew 7:7-8
Voice Recognition: ‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand’– John 10:27
The Deeper Walk: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ – proverbs 3:5-6
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No matter if we have played charades at times, we are totally known and loved by God. He sees straight through any ‘front’ we may put on even if we’ve done this in worship. Matt Redman wrote about that in one of his songs:
I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart
Why not listen to this and mull over any obstacles between you and God – He is calling you out of the shallows to walk with Him more deeply in the whole of life.
The Heart of Worship by Matt Redman:
For more reading: https://connect4life.org.uk/c4l-boosters/superficiality/
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