Establishing Relationship
Establishing Your Relationship with God
Tell the story of Hannah and her desire to have a child and her promise to God if he blessed her with one.
Starting with 1 Samuel 1:1. There was a servant of God named Elkanah who loved the lord, who worshiped God faithfully. This man had two wives (I know right now all you woman are saying two wives, what kind of man of God is that) (Well during that time as many as you could handle was permitted) (Now I imagine there are a few men saying man I should have been living back then) Well God has an appointed time for all of us and our time rather we understand it or not is right now where we are. Amen.
Well one of the wives of Elkanah had plenty of children while the other could not. The wife that could not bear children was named Hannah. The other wife and her children would always make fun of Hannah because she produced no children (You know some people are just plan cruel and have no understanding of what affect the things they say can have on others.)
You see I want you to try and get an understanding of what this woman went through day after day for years. Well one year they were down at the temple making sacrifices to God and Hannah makes a promise to God. She pours herself out on the alter.
1 Samuel 1:11 (KJV)
11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.
Let me just clarify something, this woman knew of God, knew of the existence of God, went through the motions of interacting with God to the best of her ability. But here is the part that a lot of people do not recognize. It normally was the job of the priest to bring your request to God on your behalf, and not only that, the law of the land was that some type of dispensation be meet, meaning something be given as a token of your sacrifice.
But Hannah decided to step out of the norm, to sit their silently and call on God. I need to take matters into my own hand, I need to fall down on my own knees and cry out father, I am in need, father this is your servant I have a request to bring before you. Oh Lord hear my cry.
I need you to notice that she was very specific in what she requested and asked of God.
There is a whole lot going on here, I need you to begin to understand God and see what moves him, what draws his attention. Let’s be clear here Elkanah did not need any more children but however it was because of the compassion that God heard in the cries of Hannah his servant that began to move God to stir God to cause God to move on her behalf.
And as she sat there at the alter talking to God in silence, just meditating and asking God, Lord here is my request.
God moves by compassion and not need!
God looked at her and understood how hurt she was, how much drama she had been going through, he seen that the load of life was getting quite heavy, and that his child Hannah was really going through something, he looked and seen her true compassion and soar, but what moved him the most was her unselfishness.
You need to begin to understand what moves God, what motivates God, what steers God to move a little bit quicker in our lives.
I want you to see this picture how many times in your life have you seen someone crying and you not had compassion for them, how many times has someone been in your company and began to cry and you were not move by compassion to do whatever you could for them.
Some of us are not crying out to God. You think God did not have compassion for the lady with the issue of Blood, she went all those years suffering. God was moved by the compassion of her infirmity and circumstances. Did not God have compassion for the widow of Nain and her dead child, or the Jarius the ruler of the synagogue? God moves on compassion
You need to let your hair down with God, you are forming a relationship with God, you need to get a clearer understanding of what motivates, what stirs, what excites, what brings joy to God.
I am sure that a few of you at one point in time consider yourself interested in someone of the opposite sex.
Well what happens in the beginning when you first meet this girl, you slide up on her, she’s at the bus stop or something you walk over there, you got your best smile going, done checked yourself to make sure you remember to use your deodorant. So you ready to make your move now, and you push up on her hey pretty momma you sure look good today, I’ve been noticing you for a few days now, and I would like to get to know you a little better.
So the next thing you’re asking her; baby can I get those digits. At this point you have created a means of communication. What happens after that? You spend the next week, month or maybe years getting to know her. The courting begins, this is the feeling out process, you are trying to learn if we have some things in common, are there some things that we may enjoy doing together, do we have like interest, could the possibility exist that we can have a future together?
You are at ground zero of the beginning of your relationship, just like some of you are at ground zero with the beginning of your relationship with God.
You have got to learn how to put in the work that stirs God, do you know what color he likes, do you know the fragrance he likes, do you know the places he likes to hang out, and the people he likes to be around, how much have you invested in the relationship to get to know God?
You see you spend countless hours talking to that young lady after you captured them digits. Well God has given you his digits, and he wants you to spend countless hours talking to him, learning about him, building a relationship of trust with him.
And this is where a lot of us fall short, we do not go the extra distance, we are not willing to step up to the plate and put in the necessary work. There are so many people who get concerned about what the next person thinks of you or how people are going to view you, and because of this you refuse to excel when it comes to God.
Now this is not the case with everyone, some people think they do not need to put in any extra time to advancing their relationship with God. They get caught up in their world of life and before you realize it your world of life has consumed the majority of your time.
Matthew 6:33 (KJV)
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
God is trying make contact!
God is on the other end of the line trying to call you, trying to get to know you a little better. You can’t hear him because you got your head phones on listen to God knows what. Or either you are so entranced over some TV program that you don’t hear him calling.
But you need to understanding he’s been trying to get your attention all along.
Let’s go back to the girl or guy you are trying create this relationship with. I guarantee you this; let her go a whole week calling you without getting a response, how long you think you’ll be at the top of her priority list for contacting.
Revelation 3:20 (KJV)
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
For some of us God has been standing at the door a long time knocking and waiting on you to open up your heart open up your life, open up your willingness to engage with him. He wants to establish a more intimate relationship with you, but some of us do not understand the importance of reciprocating this relationship with God.
We have been given miss-information or we have believe that the challenge of establishing a relationship with Christ cost to mush for us. The price that we must pay is greater than what we are willing to give.
Because for many years we the church have taught you behavior change in order to create a worth wild relationship with Christ.
I need to tell you that the behavior change does not come before the relationship. Take you back to the time when you called that young lady up. You didn’t stop doing this and doing that prior to calling her, you didn’t tell yourself I need to fix all the things in myself before I call her. Why not? Because this is not the natural order of how you create a relationship, of how you get to know someone. In order to know anyone you must first spend quality time with them getting to know them.
Just because you are in the company of somebody that may know God, that does not mean you know God. You have got to make it your business to establish a communication with God. We say this all the time it is imperative that you begin to read your bible, attend bible study, call your pastor ask questions, spend some quality time talking to God.
Had that young man never called and spend countless hours, days, weeks and maybe months talking and sharing and learning. You would never have learned the things that each of you like or disliked, you would not have learned the things that made one another uncomfortable. This is the same way with Christ. What the Holy Spirit requires of me is not the same thing he may require of you.
Somebody Give God Some Praise….
This is a get to know you time in your life, learn all that you can about God, establish that commitment within yourself to create time in your life to learn about God.
How can you please someone, if you do no not know what pleases them? Make it your business to exercise that call to Christ. Pick up the phone when God calls.