Relationship with Christ
The Christian Life
The Most Important to God
Before we were born—before we ever sought Him—God was already pursuing a relationship with us. Nothing is more central to His heart. It is why He seeks the one who is lost, why He continues to call, and why He made a way for us to be restored to Him. This desire cost Him everything—so much that He gave His own Son to make that relationship possible.
And in that relationship, God does not hold back. He gives us all of Himself, so that in Him we lack nothing. Knowing how deeply this matters to Him—knowing how fully He loves us—we must ask: what does our relationship with Him actually look like?
One of the clearest ways to answer that question is to look at those who walk closely with God. Their response to Him reveals what a genuine relationship looks like—and helps guide us into one ourselves.
Deep Humility and Reverence
Those who encounter God are marked by humility and reverence. The angels stand in awe before Him. Moses was told he stood on holy ground and removed his sandals. Isaiah and John were undone at the sight of His glory. Peter fell in humility when he realized who stood before him.
Even more striking, Scripture tells us that Jesus Himself approached the Father with reverence. If this is how heaven responds, and how the Son honored the Father, then the question becomes unavoidable: are we giving God that same reverence?
Do we have a true fear of the Lord—a deep, overwhelming awe of who He is? His holiness and power call for nothing less.
God spoke of the new birth through the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them… I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me” (Jeremiah 32:40). At the beginning of our walk with Him, God places this holy fear within us—a reverence that anchors us to Him. Perhaps, then, it is not something we ignore, but something we should pray to grow stronger—that our hearts would be so filled with reverence for Him that we would never drift away.
Yet there is another kind of fear as well—the fear of being without Him. A right awareness of our need for God should not drive us away, but draw us closer. It should cause us to cling to Him, like a child holding tightly to a loving Father, knowing we cannot stand without Him.
Trust in the Lord
Those who belong to God entrust their lives fully to Him. Because of that trust, they become His servants—living not for themselves, but for His will.
We see this clearly in the early church. Their trust in God was so real that they surrendered everything—possessions, plans, and even their lives—for His purposes.
The question for us is simple, but searching:
Do we trust God like that?
With our lives… our loved ones… our finances… our work… our relationships… our struggles… our pain… and even our successes?
Living for God’s Glory
In the book of Revelation, when someone attempts to worship an angel, the angel immediately refuses and redirects all glory back to God. Even in their greatness, they will not take what belongs to Him.
John the Baptist expressed the same heart:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
This is the posture of a life centered on God—not seeking recognition, not drawing attention to self, but pointing everything back to Him.
So we must ask:
Are we living for God’s glory—or our own?
Do our words, actions, decisions, and desires reflect a life that longs to make Him known above all else?
Living to Serve God
The angels live to serve God—delivering His messages, offering protection, carrying out His will, and ministering to His people. In the same way, the faithful throughout Scripture became His messengers—His hands and feet in the world.
They did not live for themselves, but wholly for the will and glory of God.
So what about us?
Are our lives truly centered on serving God—or serving ourselves? It is easy to appear devoted, to take part in church events, and call it service. But does that reflect the whole of our lives?
Do our thoughts, choices, and actions reveal continual devotion—or only moments of outward appearance?
At the core, is our heart set on serving God—or on gaining something for ourselves?
Living in Relationship Now
Reverence for God, trust in Him, living for His glory, and serving Him—these are the marks of a true relationship with Him.
The angels who stand before God are wholly consumed with Him—fully surrendered, unceasing in worship and obedience. They do not drift, divide their attention, or rely on themselves. Everything about them is fixed on God.
If this is how they respond to Him, should we treat Him with anything less? Or do we live as though devotion can be postponed—waiting for heaven, as if one day we will simply “flip a switch”?
Perhaps when we stand before Him, seeing Him as He is, we will fall to our knees in awe and reverence. But will that moment be marked by joy—or by regret?
Like them, we are created to spend eternity with God. Should that not compel us to pursue Him now?
We understand this kind of devotion more than we realize.
I have been married for over 23 years. My wife and I have now lived longer with each other than we ever did with our parents. We love our parents deeply, but we are devoted to one another above all others—because we chose to spend our lives together.
In the same way, if we say we belong to Christ, then our lives should reflect that devotion. We are not simply associated with Him—we are given to Him.
Jesus taught that our love for Him should so surpass all other loves that, by comparison, they seem like hatred—not because we love others less in a sinful way, but because He is our life, our everything—the One with whom we will spend eternity.
Eternity—do we truly grasp it?
Our entire, unending existence will be with God. If our relationship with Him now lacks reverence, surrender, and wholehearted devotion, what makes us think it will suddenly appear when we see Him face to face?
Eternity does not begin when we arrive in heaven—it begins the moment we are saved.
