Excerpt from Reframe by Brian Hardin
Once we’re clear that we’re facing spiritual starvation, we begin to understand how desperately we need God and how deeply we are created to be with Him and He with us in an intimate, personal, and life-giving relationship.
A never-off, always-on, moment-by-moment friendship with God connects us at the core of who we are to the very source of life.
From this source, life comes bursting out of us, touching every other relationship we have and shaping our lives accordingly. And in the midst of our starvation, we begin to find nourishment.
Although there are many fundamental elements involved in a nourished relationship, two are irreplaceable.
1. Identity (The Word of God)
What if I told you that the Bible is more about you than it is about God?
Would that shock you? Stay with me here.
If God had wanted to write a book about Himself for Himself, it’s highly unlikely we’d understand a word of it.
Would it even be written with words?
Keeping connected to our identity is probably the greatest source of nourishment the Scriptures offer. It’s like an intravenous hookup to spiritual life. Knowing our identity is the key to everything. If we forget who we are, we’re lost in just about every conceivable way.
2. Communication (Prayer)
As in any other relationship, we need to communicate with the person we’re in a relationship with, or else there isn’t much of a connection.
It would be pretty difficult to have a best friend you never talked to. You didn’t fall in love with your spouse by staring out the window in silence on every date, right? At one point or another, the conversations and time spent together sparked an irresistible urge to be near each other.
A basic building block for any relationship moving forward is good communication. But for some reason, we often put our relationship with God in a different category.
Have you ever listened to people talk to God?
We can’t talk to Him only when we’re facing difficulties or offering words of gratitude or songs of worship. Oh, and thanks for our meals, of course.
These are completely appropriate, but what God wants is to be with us—to be the first and most important love of our lives (Revelation 2:4-5) because this is the place we hold in His heart.
Have you ever been in love with someone who constantly kept you at an emotional arm’s length? It was torture, wasn’t it? Why would we do this to the One who gave us the gift of life and proves His unstoppable love for us continually?
“Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
John 4:13-14 NLT
