A thought by Dallas Willard (2012-04-24) from his
book, Hearing God: Developing aConversational Relationship with God (p. 26). InterVarsity Press. Kindle
Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
Right before this
thought Dallas says, “Sometimes today it seems that our personal relationship
with God is treated as no more than a mere arrangement or understanding that
Jesus and his Father have about us. Our personal relationship then only means
that each believer has his or her own unique account in heaven, which allows
them to draw on the merits of Christ to pay their sin bills. Or possibly it
means that God’s general providence for his creation is adequate to provide for
each person.”
But then he says, “But
who does not think there should be much more to a personal relationship than
that? A mere benefactor, however powerful, kind and thoughtful, is not the same
thing as a friend. Jesus says, ‘I have called you friends’ (John 15:15) and ‘Look,
I am with you every minute, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20).”
He is my friend and he
talks to me and if you have a relationship with him he does the same to
you. That is such a tremendous benefit
of his being my friend. The problem for
many is they maybe don’t realize or cultivate that part of the
relationship. We seem to do all the
talking and don’t stop to listen either through his word or through our
thoughts.
As Dallas also says, “The
Spirit who inhabits us is not mute, restricting himself to an occasional nudge,
a hot flash, a brilliant image or a case of goose bumps. Such simple reasonings
add further weight to the examples set by well-known Christians that confirm
the thought that ideally we should be engaged in personal communion with God.
We might well ask, ‘How could there be a personal relationship, a personal walk
with God—or with anyone else—without individualized communication?’”
Good question. He does talk to us.
So are we listening?
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