How To Improve Your Relationship with God

Prayer – Lord God, I just want to please You in all that I think, say, and do…but like Paul wrote to the church in Rome…“part of me is still a slave to sin…I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. ... I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ... I have discovered this principle of life--that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ... But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:15-16, 19, 21, 23-25

Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:6-9

 

Meditate. Consider your relationship to God.

 

First of all…God want to be our one and only God. He commanded in the Ten Commandments that we should have no other gods before Him. It is a reoccurring theme that He repeats several times in the Bible.

You must worship no other gods, for the LORD, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. Exodus 34:14

Jesus shares some wise advice in one of the many parables that He told:

"Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God." Luke 12:21

No one wants to be a fool! But like Paul wrote to the Romans, we just are enslaved to sin. Seek God with all of your heart and you will find Him…then ask Him to teach you to be pure and obey Him.

Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you. With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God. I will give glory to your name forever, for your love for me is very great. You have rescued me from the depths of death. Psalm 86:11-13

What does God expect of us? How can we restore or improve our relationship with Him. Humble obedience, communicating and communing with Him via prayer, and repenting from our dreadful, sinful ways.

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

Brass cross from Korea.
Christ died for all mankind.
Our relationship to God
is restored by Christ on the cross
.

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Romans 5:8-11

God wants us to be obedient—like His Son, Jesus. There is coming a time when a blessing from God may directly correlate to our obedience.

God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near. Revelation 1:3

Can we truly be obedient? What will that blessing be? It will certainly be God’s unmerited favor, His grace, towards us in spite of feeble attempts to win His favor.  

 

Verse of Salvation ~ Won't you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation. Psalm 85:6-7

 

© 2023 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm. 

 

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