A Personal Relationship with God
Many times we hear Christians refer to a personal relationship with God, and this statement has always perplexed me. Personal Relationship?… confusing words, indicating that a relationship with God could take any form and carry any structure of dynamics, either initiated or desired by the individual involved. With this imaginative parameter, or lack thereof, the individual dictates the relationship; its dynamics and terms; therefore, dangerously inferring that the individual person establishes the relationship, not God. As biblically-centered people of faith, we understand this is an impossibility as God Himself initiated our relationship by creating us out of nothing, and He has continued to engage His people through His Word, which is eternal.
The Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which after the journey of Great Lent we will celebrate together at the end of next month, enhances the reality that God sent His Son in the same fashion, for all of mankind; as our Lord and Savior, to save us from the oppression of death, and provide rebirth through the Light and experience of His Resurrection. This reality, recognized in faith, both solidifies the Biblical portrayal of our relationship to God as His servants, and establishes our relationship to God as His children. Any personalization that occurs is in the form of how quickly, and in what fashion, we choose to recognize and commit to these roles. Ultimately we pray that this relationship with God will lead to the reception of His great mercy, and the eternal experience of His love and energies in the Kingdom of Heaven.
As members of the Body of Christ, we are privileged to participate and experience the authentic ‘personal relationship’ with God each time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. Foretaste of the experience awaiting us in the Kingdom is found in the Eucharist – coming into union with God by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ! In His Church, we find the forum and medium to experience the personal relationship with God in the most authentic way, through the sacraments, most primarily in the reception of Holy Communion. Therefore, the reference to a ‘personal relationship’ with God may be used when referring to those who recently were sanctified by receiving Holy Communion, a vast difference from imaginative, individualized, self-established relationships with God.
Let us focus, as individual members of the Body of Christ, on (re)establishing our ‘personal relationship with God’ by preparing and receiving Holy Communion in Christ’s Holy Church! With the fear of God, faith, and love draw near…
Note: the biblical understanding of the Master – servant or Father - child relationship
encompasses all references and images of God found in Orthodox Christian tradition, including but not limited to: Physician (Holy Unction Service), Artificer (Baptism Service), and Merciful Master (The Blessing of the Loaves Service).
+Fr Luke Palumbis