In My Father’s Study

There’s this thing we do as Christians, when other Christians ask us how our relationship with God is going, and we often answer in terms of how much time we’ve spent reading our Bibles or praying.  If we’ve had a good stretch of devotional time, we say things are going pretty well.  If we’ve been neglecting our devotions, we say things could be better.

I suppose it’s only natural to think in these terms.  We live in a tangible world, and we use our sense of touch, and taste, and smell, and hearing, and sight to know and experience all the things that we consider to be real.  But we also believe in a God who cannot touch, or taste, or smell, or hear, or see, at least not anymore, and not in the same sense as the world we know as real.  And the one thing we can touch is His Word, and the one thing we can hear is our prayers, so we hold on to those tightly.

I was talking with a friend recently who asked me how my relationship with God was going, and I told him this:

It’s been OK.  I mean, I’m still reading my Bible a bit, but it’s mainly to try to keep up on a reading plan.  And I do pray throughout the day, asking God for help in things or praying when people come to mind.  But I don’t think that’s really what you’re asking.

The real truth is that I feel disconnected from God, like something’s just a little off.  It seems to me like God is waiting in my study, and I’m hanging out by the doorway, talking a bit, or passing by and nodding.  But I’m not going in to sit and talk and be with Him.

I know it’s a silly picture, but there is a difference between reading and praying in the doorway and reading and praying in the study.  I guess in the latter that I want to be there, because that’s where my Father is, and I love being with Him.  So pray for me, that I would go on in more often, and if you find yourself leaning on the door post, go on in as well.  There’s room for both of us.

Question:  How’s your relationship with God going?