by Kris Irvin

Created on: March 02, 2008

There has been many misconceptions and deceptions on how to have a "personal relationship with God." Over the years I have heard many different peoples viewpoints on the correct way to approach God or to talk with Him. My childhood was filled with promises of knowing God based on salvation. So I got saved didn't get this personal relationship with God though. In fact I feel like I just got a thing to fall back on in conversation. No relationship, just a catch all for all of my wrong-doings. Then later on as I attended bible college I learned that to have a relationship with God is to spend time studying the bible and all of this approved list of authors that know all about God and were not going to lead me astray. All I got from that experience is a lot of sleeping (some of the authors recommended were far less than entertaining) and a head-knowledge of God; still no relationship.

Well let me take that back. I did have personal relationship with God, just like everyone else did. God was constant in my life as he is in everyone's. But I was not experiencing him. I didn't realize that he was there and spent hours and even days trying to find him. In retrospect it reminds me of those times (hopefully I am not the only person that has these) when you go looking for something, be it a pencil or your keys or a cigarette anything. Then after what seems to be an eternity of looking you realize that it was in your hand the entire time. What I have recently come to find out is that in order to have a personal relationship with God you have to realize that He is with you always. "Behold I am with you alway, even to the ends of the earth"

My friend walked my wife and I through a process the other day, and I have tried to incorporate this into my life on an everyday basis and I think that it has helped my personal relationship with God quite a bit. The basis of the process is to look in the room and find Christ (ok.. there was some imagination in this but you would be surprised how God uses the gift of imagination that he has given us,) after you have found Christ you do a few different things to find out what he is doing, thinking, saying and what his heart is in direction to you or the person that he is closest to.

So I was sitting on my balcony with my guitar, as I do quite often, and I thought that I would try this process out. I thought for a moment and then realized that Jesus was sitting right across from me, and all his desires and thoughts were Love towards me. I sat there and cried. All Jesus wants from me is for me to have a relationship with him. He is sitting there beside us, just waiting for us to open up to him.

Here is the awesome thing that I have realized about God. He has already done his part in everything. This includes our relationship. He has already become our "friend" all we have to do is open up to him. The main obstacle that we have in having a personal relationship with God is to get by our pride. Honestly it was incredibly humbling today when I sat there realizing that all Christ wanted was me. I need to step out of the way and start having a relationship with him.

I am not saying that it is going to be a quick overnight fix. That is the cool thing about relationships, they grow with time. Maybe you need to just realize that there a really cool God that wants to be your friend and wants you to be His friend as well.

I would like to introduce you to my friend named God, He is really awesome.. maybe you two can get a little more acquainted, here have a cup of coffee and maybe you two can share some life stories. I am sure you have quite a bit in common...

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