Do you ever think about your relationship with God? I never really thought of it as a vertical relationship but that is exactly what it is. Up and down, much like the seasons of our lives or the flow of a river.
Last week, I wrote a blog entitled, Falling into Thankfulness, where I discuss the seasons of our lives. When we think about our own relationships, we often experience ups and down, like seasons. This is part of life.
When you think about your relationship with God, there may be times when you feel plugged in and other times, when you feel disconnected. However, if you have ever had an encounter with God, you know, that’s when everything changes. These “God-moments” let us know, there is so much more to this life.
Oddly enough, my husband and I found ourselves sitting in a church in downtown Salisbury, NC on Sunday afternoon. As we listened to the sounds of soulful jazz, in a half full cathedral style sanctuary, something began to happen. While the sounds of worship rang out, the Spirit overflowed onto each one of us. God came to be with us. The joyful jazz of this three man band somehow opened the windows of heaven. Sitting there, no words were needed as we basked in the river of life.
Halfway through the concert, the jazz drummer introduced one of his originals pieces, entitled, The Bend in the River. As he described his song, he compared it to our vertical relationship with Him, pointing upward. When his brush grazed the snare drum for the first beat of the song, in an instant, God was everywhere! It was magical.
The ups and downs life
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 NIV reads,
“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,”
From the Lexham English Bible, the same section in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 is called, “God has ordained the Ebb and Flow of Human Activities”. Whereas the NIV reads, “There is a time for everything,” the LEB says, “For everything there is an appointed time.” This appointed time sticks with me as I think about my life in Christ.
Sometime back, I compared our relationship with God to Jesus’ relationship, in a blog entitled, Draw near to God and God will draw near to you. In it, we see Jesus having “mountaintop” experiences with God and yet feeling forsaken later on the cross. Even His own relationship with God had ups and downs.
In that blog, I reference Romans 8:28 from The Message. It reads, “That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good… God knew what he was doing from the very beginning.” This should encourage us in our own relationship with God.
Our life is our vertical relationship with God.
As I sat in that sanctuary, I began to understand my life in Christ as a river. I have experienced those bends in the river of life. That music, ordained by God, somehow ushered in a new experience for me. It was not overwhelming or turbulent, but perfectly peaceful, a gentle roll of the river of God. And although we will experience bends in the river, this water never dries up and never stops flowing. This a our vertical relationship with God.
Ephesians 2:10 reads, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
- You are God’s handiwork.
- You have been created in Christ Jesus.
- You have been created to do good works.
God prepared your life for you in advance. “In advance” means an appointed time. A time ordained by God.
Your life is your vertical relationship with God and it is ordained specifically for you. That relationship with God is what gives your life any real meaning.
Your life is sacred, as is mine. God put us here for a season, for such a time as this. What we choose to do with it is up to us. My prayer is that we experience God as often as we wake.
Let us pray,
Oh Great River of Life, flow down over us, in us, and through us. Wake us up to Your Presence, revealing just how sacred our lives really are. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
P.S. Leave me a comment below because I love hearing from you. Forward this message to a friend and ask them to subscribe to my website. Post on Facebook and tag me in it. Until time, ask God to reveal Himself to you today. -M
