God loves you. You know that, right? A crazy amount. He even sent His son to die for you. It’s so… nice. So happy. Easy. Pleasant. Nothing can take that away. That’s true, however, there are a few other things that we need to add into the mix.
One of the common misconceptions we have about the whole God factor is that there is nothing we can do to affect our relationship with God. That isn’t true. Yes, God loves you, but there are things you can do which make you closer to Him and things that you can do which can take you further away from Him.
A lot of the time we claim that God is distant. The reason He is so distant is usually because we are distant. In the Bible, Jesus says that if we love His commands and keeps them, we can enjoy an intimate friendship with Him.
Obedience leads to intimacy
Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. – John 14:23-24
We cannot claim to love God with all that we are if we selectively accept or reject parts of His character that interfere with our desire to do something else. We can’t pick up bits of God that we like and then leave the others. We can’t like the loving side of God and ignore the part that leads us and guides us.
When we don’t listen to God, indirectly we are saying – I don’t care what you think, or I like you but I still want to do it my way. This affects our relationship with God and so instead of having good relationships, we may have an average relationship.
God loves us, but that doesn’t mean we have a good relationship with Him.
We have to invest into our relationship with God
Do you get to know God by watching movies and TV until all hours of the morning? No.
Do you get to know God by spending time with friends and not talking about God for hours on end? No.
Do you get to know God by dating loads of different people and chasing after relationships?
Do you get to know God by drinking and partying all weekend?
You don’t get to know anyone by ignoring and de-prioritizing them in favour of other things you like more.
If you told someone you loved them and then never spent any time with them, it would be clear that you didn’t love them at all.
To actually get to know God, and to get close to him you need to cut out the things in your life which take away quality God time. Try to get up early in the morning and pray. Try to play worship music in your car on the way to work. Try to take some time on the weekend to read your Bible.
If the God of the Universe is not important to us, then maybe we need to look at our priorities and rethink some things. Not spending enough time investing into your relationship with God will decrease the quality of this relationship.
God does love immensely, but your ability to hear what He says and live a life close to Him is dependent on your actions. You can choose to be obedient to His ways and spend time with Him or you can build your life on the things of the earth.