What Can a relationship with Jesus Do?

How important is a relationship with Christ? In my opinion extremely. If you asked almost anyone they would agree with that, but what does it mean to be in a relationship with Christ? I have found it means you pursue Him as He pursues you or you allow Him to pursue you. God is funny because He desperately wants this intimate relationship with you, but if you do not desire Him that way then the intimacy is lost.

He will be as close as you want Him to be. And we all say. "I want God as close as possible", but most of the time there is something that we are unwilling to give up. God wants our whole heart, not just part of us. If you feel God is getting in the way of what you want, He will allow you to move out of the way. Even when you know and He knows that that’s not what you need. It is important that we realize what is at our center. If it is not Christ, then life usually gets a lot more complicated.

Maybe some of your fears, as well as my own, are how are we to love other people if we just focus on our relationship with God? Oddly enough it is the growth of this relationship that allows us to love others. I have seen it in my own life that if my relationship with God is THE most important thing in my life, I am a better person, better friend, and better to myself. If you focus on Christ and Christ alone, just take a moment to look around and see how all the problems you had just seemed to disappear.

You feel whole, joyful, at peace, and yourself. I’ve never felt more at peace with who I am or was even able to know who I was than with Christ. It is when I was away from Him that my heart searched for meaning and purpose, that I looked to understand myself because I didn’t know who I was. When you make that conscious decision to deny Jesus nothing, then you truly become free.

It isn’t easy; any relationship that you have, any plans you’ve made, or any idea that you have can all be changed. It’s scary and that’s why we don’t want to do it. We all must answer the question “Do I trust God?” If the answer is "yes" then why are you afraid?

I do not know where God will lead me or which friends I will have. I know that I’m scared because I can’t conceive life getting any better than what it already is. I’ve come to realize that I limit God by thinking like that. God is outside our understanding. We know so little about Him, so why is it not possible that He can make life better than anything we conceive? So yes, I, like everyone else, am afraid, but in my relationship with God there is truly nothing to fear. He will bring you peace, but you must search for Him, not for what He can give you, but merely because He is God. He wants you, just you, not what you can give Him. It's time that we do the same for Him.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’”