With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God

by Skye Jethani

We were created in his image so that we might live in relationship with him.

If the Bible were the script for a play, both the opening scene and the final act of this drama would focus on God’s desire to live and rule with his people. This impulse carries the drama from beginning to end. And yet the call to a life of intimate communion with God is largely absent today.

If you recall, each of the four popular postures has a different way of seeing the universe. LIFE UNDER GOD sees the world as governed by the capricious will of God. LIFE OVER GOD places immutable natural laws at the center. Life from God assumes the world orbits around the self and its

desires. And LIFE FOR GOD sees a divine mission at the core of all things.

LIFE FROM GOD uses him to supply our material desires. Life over God uses him as the source of principles or laws. LIFE UNDER GOD tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. And LIFE FOR GOD uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose.

But LIFE WITH GOD is different because its goal is not to use God, its goal is God. He ceases to be a device we employ or a commodity we consume. Instead God himself becomes the focus of our desire.

Os Guinness said it this way: “First and foremost we are called to Someone (God), not to something (such as motherhood, politics, or teaching) or to somewhere (such as the inner city or Outer Mongolia).”17 In other words, it is not our circumstances or behaviors or radical decisions that give our lives meaning and hope, but our unity with God himself.