Life is as good as its relationships part 3: Living in right relationship with God

Skiing is exhilarating.

I am not talking about slops that manufacture their own snow. Those places are fun, but not exhilarating. I am talking about a place like Breckenridge, Colorado.

In college, I took a ski trip to Breckenridge with friends and college administrators. Halfway through the first day, once my skiing-to-crashing ratio evened out a bit, I paused and looked out over the mountains.

When I looked, I saw rugged yet sleek rock faces topped with sparkling, clean - I mean clean - snow. There were not merely one or two peaks, but a rolling expanse of white-capped towers standing like castles and stretching as far as I could see in either direction.

The view was glorious.

After my pause, I put ski to slope and launched myself down another double black diamond - okay green/blue slope - and that was also glorious. The wind rushing past your face and stinging your cheeks as you pick up speed on straightaways and then try to control that speed so that you don’t crash or take out a couple fellow travelers brings quite an adrenaline rush.

As the trip went on, I found that I had the best time when I mixed gradual, longer slops with the steeper, quicker ones. This gave me time to improve my skiing and rest a bit before my next speed-filled, on the edge, adventure. Skiing takes work to be fun, but if you apply yourself it is a challenging, fulfilling experience.

Living in right relationship with God is like skiing, only it is more satisfying, nourishing, rewarding and fulfilling. And I so often forget this, doing so many things and running after so many pursuits that lead me anywhere but there.

Living in right relationship with God

God made everyone with an innate craving for delight: people pursue fulfillment. He also made people with an instinct for worship: we all worship something(s). The beauty of God’s design is that people are most fulfilled when they worship and delight in the same thing, putting all of their energy and focus into one pursuit.

The only pursuit that is ultimately satisfying and that brings God the worship He deserves is living in right relationship with Him.

This ultimate joy of living in right relationship with God is clear in Scripture and I have also experienced it. Paul spoke of knowing Christ being his ultimate pursuit (Phil 3:7&ff), David said he sought one thing: to dwell with God forever (Ps 27:4) and Peter wrote of people in right relationship with God rejoicing with a joy that is inexpressible (1 Peter 1:8).

You’re thinking “Great, but what does that look like? How do you actually live in right relationship with God?”

Giving yourself to Scripture

The key component of living in right relationship with God is interaction with Scripture. Reading it, mulling over it, thinking about it, talking about it with others, living in light of it - in sum, giving yourself to it. You will not consistently live in right relationship with God if you do not give yourself to Scripture.

It is not easy to give ourselves to Scripture because in our sinfulness we don’t want to. In our sinfulness, we want to live however we want to, not how God wants us to. In our skewed, sinful mentality, we think that we will find greater fulfillment apart from embracing Scripture when the exact opposite is true.

Satan also doesn’t want us to give ourselves to Scripture because that brings glory to God and he hates that.

Our perspective toward Scripture thus sometimes looks like a high schooler’s mentality toward his biology textbook: he knows he needs to read it, but he really doesn’t want to. He finds, in fact, that he would rather do about anything than read his biology textbook. So, when he does read it, he scans through the pages, checks it off his list and retains little of what he reads. And he sure doesn’t talk about what he reads with others.

As a sophomore in college, I came to a place where my perspective on Scripture was, “how much do I have to read?” One day I asked our campus pastor if he thought a daily time of personal Scripture reading was necessary. He turned, looked me in the eye, and said, “It is not a matter of if or how often you read Scripture, but what God is teaching you from Scripture as you read. With this perspective, daily reading is a given.”

That was huge for me. I realized that if I approached Scripture as the perfect Word of God that is sufficient to equip me for everything good and to enable me to live in right relationship with God and others, then I would choose - and hopefully want - to read Scripture regularly. And not just read it, but meditate on it - chew on it, mull it over, talk about it with others. Give myself to it.

If you think of your favorite hobby, you probably know a lot about it. You learn about it, read about it and talk about it to the point that you develop an instinctive knowledge of it. That is where we want to be with Scripture.

This is not natural - don’t be discouraged if this is not natural for you - but it can become more natural. You can grow to love Scripture. Your love for it will probably ebb and flow: we should not be satisfied with this, but it is a near-certain reality because we are sinful creatures who God is still transforming into Christlikeness. Our goal should be for our love of Scripture, knowledge of Scripture and application of Scripture to be on an upward path so that over time we know it better and love it more.

Talking about Scripture/God with others

As we read and chew on Scripture, it is huge - HUGE - to talk about it with others. God designed people to live in connection with other people. As we talk to others about what God is teaching us from His Word it solidifies what we are learning. Secondary relationships - with people - can strengthen, or hinder, our primary relationship - with God.

Talking with others about Scripture is another area where Satan and our selfish flesh can get in the way. Satan wants us to lack confidence in our understanding of Scripture. If he can get us to read Scripture on our own, but not really be sure about it, not talk about it with others and then not act on it then he is happy. In our sinfulness, we don’t want to share something we are not totally sure about and/or that might suggest a need for change in our life, which Scripture often does. The result is we don’t talk about Scripture.

This is a great time/situation to remind ourselves that Christ brings us into right standing with God and enables us to live there. It is not our greatness and strength, but His greatness and strength, that matters. We are simply to look to Christ and act out of faith in Him. If you get nothing else out of this article, get this: living in right relationship with God centers on faith in Christ, just like entering right relationship with God does.

Talking about what God is teaching you in Scripture helps engrain it into you. As you personally read and think about Scripture and talk about it with others you will likely discover that one of these two activities is particularly valuable for you. Everyone needs to do both - (1) personally spend time in Scripture and (2) talk about it with others - but most people naturally benefit more from one or the other.

I particularly value personal meditation on Scripture: it is huge for me. One of my best friends is the other way around: he benefits from personal meditation on Scripture, but he really values talking about it with others. For him, that is when Scripture really sinks in. Everyone needs to do both: this is key. But instead of being discouraged by the fact that someone else appreciates personal meditation more than you, be encouraged by their relationship with God and appreciate the unique way He has wired you.

It could also be that listening to a sermon is particularly helpful for you. Other people appreciate songs that draw out biblical truths. The goal is for God’s Word to be getting into you so that it increasingly shapes the way you think and live and does the same in those around you.

This post has run long, so I will save applying to Scripture life and further thoughts on living in right relationship with God for my next article. That next step of applying Scripture and living in relationship with God in real life, especially when life is crazy, is really where the rubber meets the road. It is challenging to live in right relationship with God, but it is glorious.

Just like skiing.