Your part in a relationship with GodHaving a relationship with God
When we discuss our relationships with God, we talk from a biassed position.
Let me explain; a relationship is now, always has been, and always will be, a connection, an association between two people; specifically, it is an emotional association, the coming together of two people that causes them to be related in some way.
Having said that, it is not surprising that we talk from a biassed position when we discuss our relationship with God. We cannot declare that we know, or that we can put across His thoughts. Scripture tells us that they are too high for us to understand.
Isaiah 55:9
(9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Let me put it another way. My wife and I got married in 1970; we have been, in the deepest sense, in a relationship for very many years now. Yet, even so, neither of us fully knows how the other one will feel about every situation that might arise. Yes, after that many years, we do know a whole set of principles: there are things that are almost set in concrete, things that we wouldn't think about doing because we know that they would offend our partner.
However, there are also things that we need to discuss, to find the right way forward. In truth, the longer you are married to someone you seem to learn that you need to discuss things together rather than just react to the situations.
Isn't this the same with God? In principle, we know many things; we understand the should do this and the shouldn't do that for so many things until it comes to the doing of it. Then all of a sudden we feel less certain about what our actions should be and so often we get it completely wrong. We either try to compromise and get some of it right or we work out what we think is best and discover that we made the wrong decision.
Why is this so very difficult? Very often it is because we fail to ask God what He wants; we fail to discuss the situation with Him and wait to hear what He has to say about the matter. In truth, there are very few situations that cannot wait for us to talk to God. Most of the situations that we face are less immediate that finding ourselves standing in the path of a speeding car and wondering if the driver will miss us or not. Very few of the situations we find ourselves in actually require even a quick decision.
What is required, however, is a working knowledge of the Father's heart. That, you cannot get from a textbook, no matter how often you read about it. All a book will give you is the answer to a specific situation that is set out for you to read about. It can give you an understanding of the principles that you should act upon, but that is not the same as being able to do it. There is a vast difference between understanding what to do and having the skill to do it.
Even the bible is not the answer to every situation that you will encounter in your Christian life. If you read that without discussing it with God, you only end up with a lot of head knowledge and this is not the same as you having the skill to put it into practice.
There needs to be a greater degree of interaction with God to achieve the skill that you need to carry out His will, in His way and in His time. Let's face it, if you do something that He wants at the wrong time it is wholly ineffectual; or if you achieve something, that He has spoken to you about, the wrong way, again it is wholly ineffectual.
Equally, if you do nothing at all, there is on gain for you. You cannot please God by doing nothing. Our Father is not a god of inaction, He is a God of action. All through the scriptures, He shows us what He has done and who He has done it through.