Starting a Relationship with God

Every relationship has an element of trust and mystery, including a relationship with God. Is it worth taking the chance?

Questions for Discussion and Personal Reflection

  1. Do you agree that all relationships have an element of risk?
  2. What does it mean to you that God is interested in relationship?

Well, to know God personally you have to have a conviction that what God is interested in is relationship. He's not interested in building us up with truth. Um, you know, a relationship has an element of risk to it so there's certainly that. Nobody—if you were to date somebody, you'd never go up to them and say, "I need scientifically verifiable truth that you will love me for the rest of my life, and in fact I need some sort of contract that you will always do I want."—we would never approach a human relationship like that, and I don't think we can approach a relationship with God like that either. There's an element of trust; there's an element of mystery. But we look at the life and teachings of Jesus, we get a sense of the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures speak to us and form our story, and we have the people of God which God calls his body. Uh, the church, when it's working properly, gives people a tangible encounter of what it feels like to be loved by Jesus, and so you get the richness of that community. That's a part of it. It's messy as is any relationship, but it's rich, and it's completely worth it.