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SUBJECT:
God
QUESTION:
How do we have a relationship with God? How does prayer,
Bible study, meditation and fasting work in establishing and
maintaining this relationship?
ANSWER:
We can answer this by simply reading our doctrine on the
Christian Relationship with God.
THE CHRISTIAN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
A Christian's personal relationship with God is fundamental
to his current spiritual condition and his ultimate
spiritual state. Prayer, Bible study, meditation, fasting
and serving fellow human beings are the chief means by which
such a relationship is initially established and continually
deepened.
DOCTRINAL EXPOSITION
Salvation is an individual matter between a person and God.
God will grant salvation as an unmerited gift of mercy if
the individual has the proper relationship with Him. God
will forgive our sins if we ask Him to do so in prayer. God
will greatly reward those who diligently study His Word and
meditate on His way for the purpose of better serving Him.
Thus, it is of profound importance that one attain the
deepest and closest possible state of personal fellowship
with God.
But the Christian does not merely seek to build and nurture
this close relationship between himself and God because he
must do so. Rather, the true Christian finds the developing
rapport with his spiritual Father to be a uniquely
satisfying and joyous experience that transcends any
physical friendship or association. This warm, personal
relationship gives the peace of mind, spiritual confidence
and faith that can only come from knowing that one really
has contact with the Designer, Sustainer and Ruler of the
entire universe.
The intimate relationship that a Christian has with his God
is that of a family—the affinity is that of a son or
daughter with his deeply loving and concerned father. "As a
father has compassion for his children, so the Lord tenderly
sympathizes with those who revere him" (Psalm
103:13, Modern Language Bible). The tie between
a Christian and God far transcends the "blood" relationship
of physical families—it is the relationship of God's Holy
Spirit (1 John 1:3). It is through this spirit that we can
have contact with God when even words cannot express our
feelings (Romans 8:26). It is through this spirit that we
are begotten as God's sons; through it we gain the right to
know God, and indeed to call Him our "Father" (Romans
8:15-16); and it is also through God's Holy Spirit that we
gain brotherhood with Jesus Christ so that He becomes our
spiritual elder brother (Hebrews 2:11).
As a physical and biological creation, man is constantly in
need of food, air, water and other necessities of life to
maintain and strengthen his body. In like manner, the
Christian's life as a spirit-begotten son of God also
requires proper maintenance. The spirit of God is nurtured
and grows within our minds in much the same fashion as our
muscles are nurtured and grow within our bodies. Constant,
constructive activity of a spiritual nature is essential if
a Christian is to thrive and reach his fullest
potentialities. Personal and private devotion includes
prayer, Bible study, meditation and fasting. These serve to
initiate, and then to augment and enhance, a person's
relationship with God.
PRAYER
Prayer is man's personal communication with God. When one
prays, he utters verbally or mentally his praise for God,
his thanks for God's blessings, and also his requests from
God for himself and for others. Biblical example shows one
should maintain close prayerful contact on a daily
basis—even several times daily (Daniel 6:10). The
Christian's prayers are an offering to God; they are
described as incense stored in golden bowls before God's
throne (Revelation 5:8). A Christian's prayers are not mere
repetitions or imposed or stylized prayers, but rather
heartfelt, personal communication with the Creator,
analogous to communication with an intimate personal
friend. A Christian shares his hopes, dreams, frustrations,
needs and desires with God as he would with a physical
father whom he loves and who loves him.
Jesus' instructions in Matthew 6:5-13 are the clearest in
the Bible regarding prayer. We are told to pray to our
Father in secret; not to heap up empty phrases; to address
God as our Father; to hallow His name; to pray for His
Kingdom to come; to ask that His way be followed and His
will be done; to thank Him for our sustenance and other
blessings; to forgive us for our sins; to help us forgive
those who sin against us; to keep us from temptation; to
deliver us from Satan; and to help us understand, appreciate
and look forward to the majesty, power and glory of God.
While no one can dictate the amount of time one should spend
in personal prayer, Paul’s admonition "be constant in
prayer" epitomizes that the proper mental attitude for the
Christian is to always be close to God. Although praying on
one's knees is a common biblical example (Acts 20:36; 21:5),
there is no official posture or position of prayer. One can
pray at any time, in any place, with any position and for
any reason, and know with full assurance that God is
listening. Of course, the attitude of the individual
is critical in determining how God reacts to our prayers.
On the one hand, God states that it is our iniquities and
sins which separate us from Him, so that He will neither
hear nor answer our prayers (Isaiah 59:2). On the other
hand, when we go to God in faith, with a humble and contrite
spirit, He will both hear and spiritually revive us (Isaiah
57:15).
In order to pray, we must realize that Jesus Christ is our
Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5), our Intercessor (Romans 8:34) and
our High Priest (Hebrews 2:17-18). He sympathizes with our
weaknesses and understands our problems, because He was "in
all points"—."in every respect," (RSV)—"tempted
as we are” (Hebrews 4:14). It is only through Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice that we can approach God the Father in
prayer. This is a remarkable reality, truly an awesome
opportunity to literally come into the presence of God and
have His full attention, interest and concern. This is why
the veil into the Holy of Holies (where God symbolically
dwelled) was ripped apart when Jesus died, as direct access
to the Father was suddenly made available for all mankind
for the first time (Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 9, especially v.
8). But even more than this, our direct contact with God
the Father can be bold and with confidence.
Through Jesus Christ our high priest, we can "come boldly
before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:15). Though
God is the very Creator of this vast unfathomable universe,
He wants us to speak to Him strongly, directly, honestly and
resolutely. This means that Christians should pray to God
"with confidence" (RSV),
asking Him to forgive them for their sins and to provide
them with their spiritual and physical necessities. But
we must ask in our prayers; we must make the conscious
effort; we are part of the process. We must take the active
step of aggressively importuning God in faith. As Jesus
told His disciples:
"Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you .... If you then, who
are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things
to those who ask Him" (Matthew 7:7, 11).
BIBLE STUDY
In the same way that prayer can be defined as communication
with God, so can Bible study be defined as God's
communication to man through His written Word (Hebrews
1:1). The Bible is God's instruction book on how man should
live his life. It is also the record of how God has dealt
with men and mankind in the past, and how God wants human
beings to respond and react to Him. The Bible is the
handbook to salvation, the textbook of eternal life.
Certainly no Christian could say he knows God if he has not
read about God in God's holy Word. He must learn to rightly
divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). While the Bible
may be and should be studied from different angles and
points of view (e.g., in a.
technical manner to understand doctrine), the
most. important Bible study for a Christian is to humbly
approach God's Word to learn how he might more perfectly
live his life before his Creator. A Christian studies the
Bible with the full recognition that God is instructing him
that he must personally apply biblical laws,
precepts, principles and directives in his daily life. A
true Christian seeks "training in righteousness," and this
can often come about only through correction of error;
consequently, the true Christian must search the Bible for
God's correction in his life. As Paul wrote to Timothy:
"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped
for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
MEDITATION
Closely related to and practically inseparable from prayer
is meditation. Meditation in the Bible is simply
concentrated thinking on a spiritual topic. It may include
focused attention on a particular biblical concept or
passage in order to probe its deepest message or meaning
(Psalm 1:2), or God's wonders and work (Psalm 77:12;
143:5). Meditation can also mean thinking before God, as it
were, on a topic about which we need to grow and
understand. Similarly, meditation can be any personal
thinking with the conscious awareness that God is listening
and concerned. Hence, meditation is closely akin to prayer,
and often indistinguishable from it. (The
original words are often capable of meaning either "pray" or
meditate.")
FASTING
Fasting is illustrated throughout the Bible as a tool by
which a Christian can stimulate his personal relationship
with God. It is not a means of penance, but is rather a
type of self inflicted trial that reminds one of his own
humanness and humbleness before his great Creator God. It
is by definition a specified period of time in which an
individual goes without food (and
perhaps without water) in order to remind oneself
of his ephemeral, fleeting existence. Fasting forces us to
focus full attention on drawing close to God. The examples
of fasting in the Bible generally involve grave crises
indicating that it is not a ritualistic thing to be done on
a periodic schedule. Nevertheless, one should fast
occasionally, even though he may not at the time be
confronting an emergency, so he will have the spiritual
reserve necessary should an unforeseen trial come along.
Prayer, Bible study, meditation and fasting are not ends in
themselves. Rather, they are through which we gain the
spiritual strength and endurance necessary to face the
trials and tribulations common to all humanity. The human
problems of survival, health, happiness, family, marriage,
success and other such activities of normal life become
challenges to the Christian rather than merely tests of
endurance. It is through facing and handling personal
problems and even tragedies that a Christian builds faith
and develops the essential strength of character necessary
for salvation. He views life as a training ground where he
can develop the positive qualities of love, patience, faith,
hope, and the other traits of God's Spirit.
Likewise, the Christian understands the purpose of godly
correction, and punishment. He knows God's ultimate purpose
is to reproduce Himself through man, to elevate man from
human nature to God's own nature, from mortality to
immortality. He realizes that at times God must correct His
children to stop them from hurting themselves with evil and
to direct them into the godly obedience that produces
character and happiness. The Christian realizes that all
humans at one time or another need God's loving correction
and thus he responds to this correction in his own life with
repentance and submission to the laws which are intended for
his happiness. God is a loving Father who will, when the
occasion arises, correct us—not in anger or out of spite—
but rather for our own good.
The twelfth chapter of Hebrews exemplifies God's attitude,
His great fatherly love, in correcting His children. We are
told "not to regard lightly the discipline of the Lord" (v.
5), because "the lord disciplines him whom He loves" (v. 6).
God is treating us as sons (v. 7) and if He did not correct
us, we would be "illegitimate children and not sons" (v. 8).
God's motivation in correction is clear: "He disciplines us
for our good, that we may share His holiness" (v.
10).
In the last half of Matthew 25, Jesus Christ explains how we
should be developing a progressively more personal
relationship with Him. He told His disciples that when we
serve others—when we give food to the hungry, drink
to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, welcome to the
stranger and company to the sick—we are actually serving
Jesus Christ Himself.
When we extend ourselves to do good to the least of His
brethren, then we are in fact credited just as though we had
done those same things to Jesus Christ personally. It is a
profound point. It shows that a Christian's relationship
with God must expand beyond internal spiritual thoughts and
express itself in an attitude of outgoing concern and
compassion for one's fellow man by external physical
actions.
Serving human beings is indeed one of the most spiritually
penetrating concepts revealed in the Bible. Only by loving
one's fellow man can prayer, Bible study, meditation and
fasting have any real meaning,
James put it succinctly: "So faith by itself, if it has no
works, is dead ... and I by my works will show you my faith
... You see that a man is justified by works and not by
faith alone" (James 2:17, 18, 24).
It is with this overall understanding of God's ultimate plan
well in mind that the Christian, as a truly begotten son,
develops his intimate relationship with his spiritual Father
through prayer, Bible study, meditation, fasting and the
full living of the active Christian life. |