Relating
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart
(Jeremiah 29:13, NKJV)
God has blessed us with many resources which are meant to make our lives fruitful. Right from creation, we note God did not just create man but He also created the plants to provide man with food, the beautiful nature scenes for the enjoyment of man and others, God truly gave us all that we need. No wonder Paul also reminds us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing enabling us to live holy lives (Ephesians 1:3). God’s creativity and provisions for our good is beyond our understanding and all these are resources at our disposal. We learn from management leaders that each one of us has resources to employ in our daily lives. While at the mention of resources many people quickly think of money, there is much more and at times more valuable than the money at hand, time is a resource and we are all given equal days, relationships are a resource usually ignored by many forgetting that our relationships determine our networks, our reach and our influence. Some have said that one’s network is a major contributor to the individual’s net worth. It is my observation that the relationship/network resource is closely related to the resource of time. It takes time to create a worthy relationship, it calls for deliberate reaching out and committing value to the relationship. Many will say that they do not have valuable relationships and that raises a question on what effort they have made to invest in the relationships at hand. It is said, to be a friend one needs to be a friend (Proverbs 18:24), and the bible has many verses on friendship that we can learn from. Friends are a valuable resource that we should cultivate with care, popular verse of two being better than one, and miserable is one who has no friends (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10); friends learning from each other as iron sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17); sharing of burdens (Galatians 6:28) and many more
As we work on our relationships, there is one that is more important than all others and that is our relationship with God. There are moments when regardless of the many friends one has, we experience seasons of being alone at times even in the midst of a crowd. There is a level of relating that no other human being can reach yet our hearts crave for a connection, this is the place where our relationship with God fills. The value of having a friendship with God cannot be measured in human terms. Jesus showed us what great love is, that He lay His life for us as His friends (John 15:13), nothing is too big for God to give us when we relate with Him. Brethren, we cultivate our relationship with God by spending time in His presence, by being deliberate in our seeking for Him. Our reference verse affirms to us that God is available to all who look for Him, it takes our looking, our deliberate search for God and His ways, and as we do so in our limited human ways, He in turn reaches out to us, He allows Himself to be found by us. Just like for other relationships, we note that our relating with God is also traded on time. The more time we spend in His presence, reading His word, in prayer and in worshiping Him, the more He opens Himself to us. God does not operate on favouritism but on intimacy. The depth of God’s love and character cannot be exhausted, we only scratch the surface as we seek Him. May we like Moses seek to know God’s ways and not just His acts (Psalm 103:7). He is inviting us to that level of intimacy where He shares His heart with us. Beloved, there is more for you in God, will you lean in?
Thoughts:
What is your relationship with God?
Are there areas you need to nurture in your relationship?
Are you investing in valuable friends?
How will you cultivate your network?