by Richard Ellis

Created on: May 15, 2009   Last Updated: May 22, 2009

How does one have a personal relationship with God?

If merely claiming a personal relationship with God could make it so, why then, a great many people would be on intimate terms with Him all their lives. It would be like asking people in the United States if they are a Christian; most would answer yes, simply because they live in a purported "Christian nation", attend church once in a while, and possibly even pray occasionally. A sort of "name it and claim it" affair; if you claim it to be so, then so it has to be. It doesn't work quite like that.

And yet, in a way, it is that easy ...

It has been said that the only prayer that God will hear from a lost person is the prayer of repentance and profession of faith in His son, Jesus Christ. Without repentance and salvation there can be no intimacy with God. Once we have accepted Christ as our savior we have an intimate relationship with God our Father and He hears all of our prayers. So, having a personal relationship with God is easy-repent, pray, and receive Jesus Christ into your life as Lord and Savior and continue to pray and read God's word, the Bible, everyday.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 the Bible tells us: "Pray without ceasing." This does not mean to continually pray without letup, but to pray regularly, or daily.

Jesus said "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." -John 15:7.

To have a personal relationship with God we must first have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

Let me tell you of one incident in my personal relationship with God...

I was not saved until I was nearly fifty-eight years old. Prior to that I was as lost as anybody could be. I had lost my wife to a heart attack four years before. Many years before her death our daughter died at five months old of a cerebral hemorhage and my father died when I was eleven years old.

One night I was kneeling beside my bed praying and telling God how much I missed all of them. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, I guess. During a quiet moment of just thinking of them, I "felt" a comforting "arm" around my shoulders and in my heart I "heard" the words: "Let them go, do not forget them, but let them go". A lot of sorrow was lifted from me that night. That is the kind of personal relationship that I always want to have with God! So profound and enlightening a thing as that does not happen every day, but when it does, it is made all the more special because of the infrequency of it.

One of my favorite hymns is: "In the Garden", the chorus of which says "And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me that I am His own". Enough said!

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