Spiritually Speaking:Personals

Do you know many people who claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Maybe they say they know the Holy Spirit intimately. Do you claim this? I suspect we all want to. Now, if you’re going to be honest, how many people do you know who really have that kind of spiritual connection? I think it’s pretty easy to understand the concept. However, I believe it is more than a notion to achieve if you use the natural world as your reference point.

We have all had, at one time or another, a very personal relationship with another person. They are wonderful, at times painful, and at other times seemingly very traumatic. But make no mistake about it. They have been and are considered by you as extremely personal. In many cases, these relationships shape our character and define us as human beings, good and bad. Not only do deeply personal relationships define us, but they can also set our lives on a road we sometimes would otherwise choose not to go down. Your relationships with your mother or father, brother or sister, family member, ex-lover, ex-spouse, or best friend can and do leave lasting impressions branded on your psyche. How we deal with and recover from personal relationships allows us to become who we are. You are extremely blessed if you can share your personal moments with others. Many of us keep them hidden in our secret places to treasure or cherish or, in many cases, despise.  Isn’t it interesting that much of the road to salvation begins with a personal experience that some call “being or getting saved?” I understand it as puzzling to those who have not had this experience. How can you have a personal experience, a moment of enlightenment, with an invisible untouchable who has been dead for over two centuries? But if you have had a real connection with someone who is now deceased or no longer in your life, you can testify how that person has and continues to have a profound effect on your very being. Even now, though they are gone, you respond to the knowledge of how he or she would respond and react to certain behaviors you wouldn’t want any of us to know you engage in.

You know that person would be disappointed, maybe hurt. You also know what would make them very proud of you. Sometimes, you even act or react according to what you think they would expect of you. Now, that’s a personal relationship. And so it is with the Almighty. By faith in Jesus, belief in His deity, trying to live by His Word, understanding His sacrifice, these things, and much more, we all have begun this very personal trip. You cannot have a personal relationship with a stranger. Only an idiot would submit themselves to the will of someone they just met yesterday. How many times have you spent a great deal of time with someone who ultimately turned out to be a complete and total stranger? I guess I’m saying we don’t have that relationship with God that we want simply because we don’t seek to establish it. We study Him not. We know Him not. A personal relationship with God is not measured by how often you attend church but rather by the depths to which you’ve been touched by His will because you were consciously and deliberately looking for Him. May God bless you and keep you always.

This column is from James Washington’s Spiritually Speaking: Reflections for and from a New Christian. You can purchase this enlightening book on Amazon and start your journey toward spiritual enlightenment.

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