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On Feb 21st, 2018, Billy Graham, the famous American evangelical preacher, died at the age of 99. Graham’s message was simple: God loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you. In 2015, he wrote on his web site that “not only is it possible to have a close personal relationship with God, but he actually wants it to happen!”
Is this really true? Can we actually have a personal relationship with God?
Indeed it is. The reason it is true is that love, the very thing that creates and sustains relationships, is God’s very nature, and God loves us:
So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. [1 John 4:16]
But how do we “do relationship” like this: how do we “abide in love” and thus “abide in God”? Very simply, by loving him back: “We love, because he first loved us.” [1 John 4:19]. When asked what was the greatest commandment, that is, the main thing that God wants people to do, Jesus said:
Wait a minute: what is this bit about neighbor? I thought we were talking here about God?
Well, yes, we are talking about God. The fact is, to love God properly, God makes it clear to us that we need also to love others, because he loves them too. If we want to be God's friend, we cannot love only him, we have to love those whom he loves. The Bible has some pretty strong language about this:
Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. [1 John 4:20]
OK, so now we know that God loves us, and other people too, and he wants us to love both him and others. But how do we do this on a daily basis?
A loving relationship, whether it is a relationship with God or a relationship with people, needs regular spending of time together, talking and listening. To live out love for God, set aside time to pray each day, and read the Bible (especially the Gospels). Go to Church faithfully and receive the sacraments with a good disposition, even if Church isn’t always fun or if others at church aren’t as congenial as we’d like. Remember that love of God means love for other people too: this means we should spend time with people, talk and listen, and do our best to help when they are in need.
Like any relationship, our relationship with God can have its ups and downs. When things get rocky, if we “mess up”, the right thing is to repent, reconcile and try again, trusting in the fact that God’s love is stronger than our failings. Remember, Jesus never stopped loving, even when people did horrible things to him on the cross. Trust in this love: if we fail, get up, be sorry, repent and be reconciled, and carry on. So what are we waiting for? Let’s love God and enter into in a personal relationship with him, knowing how much he loves us.
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