I was brought up in what one would call a ‘nominal’ Christian family where Christianity was displayed through the culture of going to church on Sunday mornings. Aside from that, nothing much else happened on the God front – except for reciting a little prayer before bedtime.
Then my faith took a very ‘real’ turn. At the young age of 4, I met a little girl at playschool who became my best friend for life. There was something very special and very different about her family. They just loved Jesus in the most down-to-earth and natural way. Their relationship with Him was so sincere that I could not help but desire such a personal relationship with Jesus myself.
Four years later, at the age of 8, I asked Jesus into my own heart. This experience is very different for everyone, but for me at this tender age, it was a tangible encounter that changed my life forever. I remember the feeling of floating up to the sky and meeting Jesus in the clouds – a personal welcome into the kingdom. This could have had a lot to do with my childish and very creative 8 year old imagination, but it is an impression that has stayed with me all the years and has always made me feel especially loved and a little favoured.
Each of us encounter Jesus in a way that is perfectly individual. God knows us right from our moment of conception. He knows every incident we encounter in our lives and how these form our perception of Him and of others and of everything in this life. He has our lives mapped out and He reaches out to us in that exact moment when he knows that we are ready to receive His love. And even then, it’s still our choice as to whether we want to receive his love or not. Whether we want to live a life in relationship with him, or not.
Since that first moment, my relationship with God has been one of nearness and distance, of obedience and rebellion but during this journey, I have had more than a handful of life-changing moments. Moments that have left me without a shadow of a doubt, that there is a God who intimately loves us and ultimately wants us to know him and love him and to be in a daily living, walking, talking relationship with him.
Romans 12:1-2The Message (MSG)
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Our relationship with Jesus is very personal, but it is also not meant to be lived alone. It is Gods design and desire for us to share this journey with other believers. Ideally we need to connect with a community of believers where we can worship together and share our journeys together. This may be in a regular church, a home church, a bible study group, a forum or a worship group. What is important is that the community is real and relational and relative to where you are in your journey with God.
Let this be your year where you make your walk with a daily, intimate adventure.