Relationship With God - Goals

Hi there! Summer holidays gone! Kudos to all Mums, Dads and Carers that survived these past tortuous six weeks! Yay, we made it! 🎺🥁💃

How hard was it trying to find ways to entertain kids for that long?! Maybe I was just lazy or I wasn't looking in the right places but then it's the same every year and I think it gets even trickier as they get older. As crazy as it sounds, work became a good excuse and a safe place for me to hide at times. Any parent feel me on this? Please let me know so I know I've not gone fully bonkers! 😭
Been singing my tune of 🎵 I'm still standing, though on wobbly legs now!🎵 and so looking forward to sending kids off on their first day back with my tambourine!
Really, I'm just so thankful they rested well, found things they loved to do and of course enjoyed lots and lots of snuggles and a crazy amount of treats while we binged on our comfort TV shows such as Master Chef on BBC iPlayer.

Ok, so I was washing up my Vax Dual Power Pet Advance Carpet Cleaner (no endorsement here) last night after using it for the second time since getting it from Argos a few weeks ago. I felt satisfied this time that it appeared to do the job of cleaning up a little accident from Roxy and I laughed at myself for earlier regretting buying this particular brand and not another one, even if it had cost more. I had struggled to understand how it worked the first time round but realised it was because I had not taken time to read the user manual, understand all the parts and their different functions.

I looked at all the cleaned up parts on the floor, ready to put it back in storage and felt proud of the work I had done to clean it that well for next use. Then, I began to think how good it'd be if this was my approach to every aspect of life even my faith journey. Always prepared and on the ready.
I felt proud and happy I was keeping my carpet cleaner in good working order to ensure its continued efficient use. How well do I keep my faith life in order to ensure I'm in line with God's plan for me?

Two questions came to my mind:
How many of us care to read the manual of a newly bought equipment or take time to learn a process before actually trying it?
How many of us really bother about maintenance and consider it important? 

Before you answer, take a look at that favourite pair of Nike trainers you recently bought, if they are clean because you clean them up after every use then you are on the right side but if they look all marked and scruffy because you've not even bothered to clean them once since they were unboxed and worn, then join me on the other side! I think we may have the love for scruffy looking well-worn trainers in common - the scruffier, the better!😆

Seriously though, the thought I wanted to share relating to the two questions above especially when

thinking of our walk with God, is how much emphasis we place on nourishing and maintaining that relationship. Once we decide to pick up our cross and follow Him, do we carefully consider what happens next?
It is one thing to enter into the most amazing, loving relationship we'll ever have, with Jesus, by accepting Him as our Lord and Saviour and laying ALL at His feet. It is however, another thing to remain there at His feet, thriving and feeling connected, content with the life we have in Him and having the assurance that we are fulfilling His purpose for us.

We maintain our homes, maintain our cars, our prized possessions and even find ways to spice up our marriages and relationships but do we think of how we can maintain and spice up our relationship with God? Do we believe that by doing good, reading the bible and allowing the Holy Spirit guide us, we can make the most of that relationship?

Nowadays, you'd find a relationship coach everywhere you turn on social media spaces, talking about relationship goals. They list factors they consider vital to developing and maintaining a great relationship where there is love and mutual respect. How much more then learning things that can help us to develop and maintain the most important relationship we'll ever have in our lifetime, a relationship with God through our Lord Jesus.

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

John 14:6 NLT

If relationship types were used to determine how invested we are in knowing God and doing this life with Him, which one of the three below would best describe yours?

• a loving, faithful, trusting and enduring marriage;
• a hidden affair;
• or an every sunday church performance akin to a one-night stand (my definition here being: a single performance of a play or show in a particular place)?

The options above may sound crazy but in all truth, we need to think of how we treat God. Do we make Him the centre of everything, pouring our love on Him and trusting in Him through every season? Or do we put other things ahead of God and almost consider serving Him an inconvenience or worse still, check in only once in a while, especially when we are in need of something from Him?

We work hard and look forward to going off on amazing holidays for a well deserved rest or some personal time to seek out other pleasures, and rightly so. I'm looking forward to a trip to Belize sometime next year which I consider so well deserved especially since I haven't been on an overseas holiday in a long while and it will also give me an opportunity to support some fantastic mission work going on there.
I believe the point I'm trying to make is whether we plan for more time with God to allow us bask in His love, read and meditate on His word just the same way we will diligently plan that all inclusive holiday to Cancun? Time created just for an alone time in God's presence?

There is nothing more we need God to give us, He has already given us EVERYTHING, which includes His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We are the ones that need to seek out His open and welcoming arms that are waiting for anyone who would run into them. His love is spread out for us, along with all that we need, we just need to key in and give Him our all.

We must nourish that relationship every second of our lives as long as there is breath within us. Make time for God, spend time with Him and you'll never feel disconnected, malnourished or lost and without purpose.

There is no benefit to being a one-night stand Christian or having a relationship on the DL with Jesus. We short-change ourselves when we do not make the most of the relationship we have with Him. Remember His words:

If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when He returns in His glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.

Luke 9:26 NLT

Stay keyed in at all times, be proud of the faith you profess and may you continue to feel nothing but God's love and peace as you lean deeper into your relationship with Him.

Love always
Ige xx