Our relationship with God determines our confidence and trust in Him. If we do not perceive the proportionality in it, we may often see Him not working for us and are depressed. God always wants to work for us and in more ways than we could imagine. It is our response to His desire that changes everything. When we are able to show confidence and trust in Him, it is certain our life depends on Him. It results in two things. Firstly, we do not deviate from His path. Then, we can avoid faith failures. These two set us above the world. By them men of God overcame the world as well as the things life threw at them. Their recipe was showing confidence and trust in Him. They did it by their relationship with Him. When everything appeared contrary, they still found strength to focus on God. The prophet said, “But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me” (Mic. 7:7).
It may take days, months and at times years before the Lord fulfills His Word to us. Yet, we are to wait for Him. There are reasons for it. One of them is building a solid relationship with Him. For it He teaches us many things all the while protecting us from the very factors that seek to destroy and humiliate us. We must also wait until He works out various circumstances in our favor. Eventually we receive, for He hears us. The likes of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and David waited for Him. Paul had to wait in Jerusalem for few years in prison before His promise of sending him to Rome is fulfilled. Yet, they all knew one thing. He delivers. He hears. He gives. The time they spent in waiting did not prove worthless. They gained a priceless relationship with Him. They grew in Him. They became examples of Him to the world.
Many times we tend to be frustrated and saddened when a situation grows on us or when life seems stagnant. But, if we are building a right relationship with God, we can have confidence and trust in Him for a fruitful outcome. The primary thing we ought to do in building a relationship with Him is staying on His path. Deviating from it wastes time and energy. Staying on it helps us to probe Him. He too allows Himself to be found. While probing Him, we face faith failures. It is not uncommon.
A weak relationship with God has more faith failures than one that is solid. Abraham had a faith failure when he assumed Ishmael as his heir. It was from a misplaced understanding. But as he grew in God through probing Him, he placed confidence and trust in Him. He received a son through Sarah just as God promised. A faith failure is a result of a misplaced understanding concerning a matter when God never meant it. Faith failures are part of growing in Christ and which wane with a solid relationship with God. However, with signs of weakness in our relationship with Him they again become common in us.
Lack of solid relationship with God is the reason to be incapable of expectantly waiting for the Lord; the flesh has other things in mind. If on the contrary, there is a guarantee. It is seen in these words. “Jesus said to him, ‘You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN’” (Matt. 26:64). What Jesus is offering us is an irrevocable guarantee. With a solid relationship with God we can see Him delivering His Word. We are not naïve of the Right Hand of Power. The creation speaks of it and much more, the Bible is full of it. The various ways in which God works, when and why are unfathomable. What is required of us is the ability to wait for Him. That ability is born of a solid relationship with Him.
A delightful outcome of a solid relationship with God is the following. “And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours’” (Luke 15:31). The parable of the prodigal son is familiar to us. Often it is seen from the point of a son of God falling away and his return or his need to return. But, in it is also mentioned of a son that never left. He is one who had solid relationship with his father. He served him without qualms. By probing his father he learned that which has been reserved for him. He heard the soothing words “all that is mine is yours.” There is a guarantee for us. With a solid relationship with the Father everything that belongs to Him is ours. We may not have received them yet, but by waiting expectantly we shall surely receive. All the things God said would perform and fulfill for us He will do; everything we ask, He will give. We know it by our confidence and trust in Him.
A solid relationship with God is one that understands Him. It submits to Him and to His will. Here are few tips to acquire as well as sustain it.
1. Accepting God’s guidance. One ought to begin with His guidance and show zeal to continue in it. “But get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do” (Acts 9:6). It is the only reason Paul had become the man he was. Not only this one time, but at all times he listened to God, held it in his heart and walked accordingly. His solid relationship with Him paved the way for a perfect life in Christ.
2. Serving the gospel. By it we are bound to constantly be in touch with God. We associate with Him by His ways. Paul encouraged believers to participate in the gospel. He said, “Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all” (2 Cor. 9:13). By contributing to the gospel we demonstrate our obedience to confessing the gospel of Christ. God has made it an avenue for believers to declare that gospel is the message of salvation.
3. Standing in the truth. If knowing the truth is one thing, standing in it is another. One of the simplest ways for Satan to keep us off the truth is giving a diversion. The Word gives the principle to avoid it. “Nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith” (1 Tim. 1:4). Our duty is to continue the will of God. Unless we stand in the truth, we cannot perform it. His will or administration, which is by faith, is everything He asks us to do.
4. Acting like who we actually are. “And nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). If we are confident our names are written in the Lamb’s book, we should not let anything stop us from having a solid relationship with God.