Relationships can be a source of great joy in our lives. They can also be a source of pain. Quite often they are somewhere in between. Sometimes they are life-giving, and sometimes they are draining.

We modern westerners are at risk of treating people like commodities. Since there is so much individualism and consumerism in our culture, we can take that same attitude into our relationships. Not always, but it’s a risk. Further, we are interacting more and more online. The lack of face-to-face connection can threaten the depth or sincerity of our relationships.

Here’s why I am saying this. We speak of our religion like a relationship. That’s a good thing. We want to be a relationship with God. In John 15 Jesus calls his disciples “friends.” A few chapters later when he speaks about us “knowing” him, he is pointing us in this same direction. In John 17:3 he says: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

This relationship of knowing and of being known is not to be taken lightly. Perhaps you’ve been dumped or “ghosted” by a friend; perhaps you’ve done the dumping and ghosting. But our relationship with God is different.

Look at the relationship from God’s point of view. He takes it very seriously. He made you while you were in your mother’s womb. He chose you before the foundation of the world. In the person of his Son, he went to the cross to die in your place. He authored your salvation. This is a God of fervent, unparalleled love. Why would he ghost the person he went to the cross to die for?

Dane Ortlund writes: “For those united to him, the heart of Jesus is not a rental; it is your new permanent residence.”* How very true.

Relationships take time. They take love. They take commitment. They take understanding. They take honesty. They take sacrifice.

They provide companionship. They provide comfort. They provide challenge. They provide joy. They provide security. 

Needless to say, relationships need to be taken seriously–including your relationship with God.

“For those united to him, the heart of Jesus is not a rental; it is your new permanent residence.”*

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Notes and extra content:

–“God who raises corpses – a resurrection prayer of hope.” Click here.

–“Is everything sad going to come untrue?” Easter sermon. Click here.

–“The perfect blood of the lamb.” Good Friday sermon. Click here. 

–*Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 66.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.