My Relationship - Genesis 1:1-3

  "In the beginning, God..."
Genesis 1:1a

  What?  God, what?  Only recently have I remember my beginning with God.  I don't know if I would call it unfortunate, though some people believe their beginning with God was at the moment of birth; naturally this might be true, however, some people who claim this don't live the life God has called them to.  Of course, this might not make sense to those people.  The beginning with God is when God ceases hovering over that which is empty, and then becomes a part of it. 
 
  "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." 
Genesis 1:1-2

  The earth is us.  We began as formless creatures, empty human beings, made less than God so that we can never be God.  Our features embody the world, rather than a life of righteousness and Godliness, thus we are filled to the deepest corner with darkness.  We begin life this way; as infants we naturally know how to sin; we naturally know how to disobey; we naturally thirst for independence and further meaning.  Daily, our deep darkness grows deeper even still as we hear the Word of the Lord God and the pleasures He has brought into the world so we can be with Him - out of the darkness.  Hearing.  That is where it ends for most of us.  Understanding.  That is where it ends for some of us.  Accepting.  Even fewer end here.  Growing.  Yet fewer continue here.  The more we hear and understand, the darker we become.  Accepting Him is one thing, but growing in Him is what we are called to.  A true relationship with the Lord through Christ has been explained to me in this way:

  I enjoy Johnny Depp movies.  I know of many quirks Depp has in his films and each langual tweek he makes in his trained accents.  I know what he looks like, and even the people he has associated with.  I can tell you almost every character he has portrayed, and recite to you lines from my favorite Depp catchphrases.  I know a lot about Johnny Depp, or at least more than most people.  But.  I have never met him.  I have never spent any measure of time with him.  I have not developed a relationship with him.  I have never sought him out in pursuit of a friendship.  I have never been invited to have dinner with him; he doesn't know I exist, nonetheless, know my name.  He does not care if I'm here or not, and I will never have a close and personal relationship with him.  I have a friend whose aunt has a friend who knows him, but I don't know those people, and I therefore, still do not know the man himself.

  And this is how many of us are with God.  We know of God; we know He created everything; we know the Bible and might have even read it; we go to church and hear more about Him; we know how we are told to live based on what He has told us; we have been told how to love Him - so this we all understand.  We even know about Jesus, who is the only and direct connection to God himself (John 14:6) but we only know OF him as well.  We don't know God.  We haven't taken time to seek Him out.  God wants us to know Him, He knows we exist and He cares for us. We think that owning a Bible and going to church is good enough to be considered worthy of His presence, and yet most of us don't even truly know what His presence FEELS like!  We assume we do because we were baptised at birth, or because we were confirmed in the church when we were 12, or because we have never missed a Sunday worship, and the excuses go on and on...

  God created us formless and empty,with a natural desire to know Him.  He wants to have a relationship with us!  This, so that we would seek Him out in our darkness and ask Him to stop hovering over us, but rather fill us!  He didn't create us to live for a paper god, or to fill our void with materialized dreams and riches.  He did not design us to thirst for mediocracy in His eyes so that we might be praised by those who walk the earth.  God can care less about the six digit figure you make each year, and all the shiny toys you have - He gave you the opportunities to get those things!  And how have you been a good steward of it?  Complained about tithing; given very little BACK to those who need it; not thanked Him for it all.  But are you satisfied?  Or do you crave for more yet? If yes, no matter how vague you believe it to be, God has not filled you - you have filled yourself.  God isn't impressed with suits and ties; He is not impressed with your salary, or the car you drive; God is not impressed with all your good deeds, either.  To be pure, is to live according to original design, and none of these things are what you were designed for.  Things of this world were designed for us, by us; but we were not designed for them.  We were designed to live as children of God; living in a right relationship with our Creator.

  In the beginning, God hovered over the darkness of the earth until the earth could bare to be dark no longer - that is when the Spirit of God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.  His light entered my formless way of living when I first realized what it meant to live BECAUSE of Christ and not FOR him.  Christ didn't die so we can live FOR him - he's already living, himself.  This, for me, only happened nearly six years ago - I'm 20 years old.  A relationship with Him does not start at birth - only the introduction of who He is and His world around us.  A relationship with God starts when we ask for the bignning to be filled with light and His presence.  Christ died so that we can live as children of God; He bridged the gap between God and sinner and reconciled the relationship that we lost at the Fall.  God doesn't want our shallow riches and pleas for more; He doesn't want to hear His name being used in honor of yourself, rather than for His glory; He wants to fill you with His light, and He wants you to ask Him for a beginning.  Sure, life has already started at the moment of conception, but life in Him starts when you ask Him to fill your darkness so that everything in your reflests His love and brings HIM glory.

©2011