DO YOU WANT A DEEPER LOVING RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR LORD? – Part 1
Author: Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote to me and asked the question: “Can I ask you something; I am converted and I want to spend more quiet time with our Lord. Do you maybe have any advice on how to spend more time with God? “
So, reading between the lines of the writing to me I understand that this person does have a relationship with Jesus, but wants to have much more of a relationship and also a more intense one.
In my answer to that person I needed to remember that this devotional from the Word be read by thousands of people.
To start with I want to say that in the end, any relationship with who so ever, to allow it to grow, it is crucial that you get to know the person. The more you understand that person and the more you have dealings with them, as an example through two way conversations and by doing this you begin to know that person better, it grows more and that relationship becomes more intense. More if it is a loving relationship.
With my loving relationship with our Lord it is no different. As a matter of fact, in my loving relationship with Him it is even more so. Because, in my loving relationship, as an example, with my wife, there is not a continual third party which is continually trying to destroy our relationship, and around you there are many examples of what can happen if such a third party was to interfere; but in my relationship with our Lord, there is satan who wants to do so 24/7.
I eagerly want to share with you how I try to live my life, because it works for me in my loving relationship with our Lord. According to my opinion the best, physical method to get to know our Lord, is to study His Word and to read it daily.
I mentioned ‘physical method’, because you can take His Word, the Bible, physically hold it in your hands and that which He shares with you, physically see before you. You will also do better if you – after you have red your daily chapter from the Bible, read one or more good Bible Commentary to help you understand what you have red. I can recommend the Bible interpreter “Albert Barnes” (available on the internet) as well as ‘Die Bybel in praktyk (The Bible in Practice)’ and ‘Die Bybel Verklaar (The Bible Explained)’, to use in conjunction with the Bible (New Living Translation).
The Word is precisely this – The Word is our Lord’s words to us. Someone defined it this way: “The Word is our Lord’s ‘Love Letter’ to us.”
I have heard of a congregation that write a journal each day which they call SOAP:
S – Read the following chapter out of your Bible each day and seek a verse that stands out from which our Lord is speaking exclusively to you and write it in your journal.
O – Do an observation of what this verse/passage means in context with the chapter.
A – Do an application of how this verse applies to you personally in your life.
P – Write a prayer to our Lord.
By doing this, you can always refer back to your journal and you will be amazed how our Lord speaks to you personally and answer your prayers.
When someone asked Billy Graham, (in my opinion one of the greatest Men of God in my life time): “If you could have your life over again, is there something different you would have done?” his answer was: “I would have studied the Bible more and would have prayed more.”
Do you see? – Mutual communication.
According to my opinion The Bible is the one/only Book which you can read throughout your life and always find something new.
Someone also put it this way: “The Word is old but always new.”
I have studied the Word for 42 years and I still get the most wonderful messages for me from it.
JESUS says of His Word the following:
MATT 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away
Therefor; the more you read our Lord’s Word and study it, the better you will know our Lord and the more intense your relationship with Him will become.
He also allowed the following to be written for us:
JOSHUA 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Because you see:
2TIM 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
2TIM 3:17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
HEB 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
To summarise this first writing about a better relationship with our Lord, I close with the following two sections from the Word. Do you want a more intense loving relationship with our Lord?
ROM 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Let’s read what Jesus says about someone who studies His Word and believes in what he/she has read therein:
JOHN 5:24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My Word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
Now I just want to point out one very important aspect concerning your walk with our Lord, when you open His Word and read. Two very, very important truths which you must, but always must remember:
1. You are reading the words from God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who also maintains it within the hollow of His hand. And
2. You are talking to the Person who loves you even more than anyone else, yourself included.
Greetings,
Sakkie