Lesson 12: A Changed Relationship with God

We continue with how God being Personal changes our behavior, specifically with music. When we realize that God is Personal, a third way we will not sing to Him is as a source of manipulation. For example, what if I were to sing to my wife this way:

"Oh Brandie, please come near me, please come to me again. Show me your presence. I am so lonely without you. If only you could be here with me now."

Now that sounds silly. Oh, I was singing to my wife, but with my words I was acting like she was nowhere to be found. In fact, I was begging my wife to be near me when the whole time she was right there. What do we think we are doing when we do that to God? Why do many Christians sing songs like "I Just Want to be Where You Are" or "Holy Spirit Thou Art Welcome In This Place"? Is no one paying attention to the lyrics? Those lyrics assume that God is not with us. If I say the Holy Spirit is welcome in this place then I am implying He left at some point and now I am inviting Him to return. When did He leave? And if I want to be where God is, then should I not just acknowledge His presence is already there? He is with me wherever I go!

When people do not understand that God is Personal, we have Christians no longer singing love songs to God from their heart. Instead they sing to God to supposedly manipulate Him to be near them when the whole time He is right there.

Oh, but praying and singing are not the only things that are going to change when we realize that God is Personal.

Another thing that will change is how you handle your walk with Jesus.


 Luke 24:13-16 - "That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him."

According to our text, Jesus Himself was actually walking right beside these two disciples yet they had no idea God Himself was right there with them. That is amazing! But did you know we do the same thing every day? We say and do things all the time we know we should not and are blind to the fact that God sees it all.

And to show you what it looks like when we do this in our personal relationship with God, we look at it through the eyes of another personal relationship. Imagine my wife and I talking with friends of ours, and the other man and I begin to talk about how impatient I am with my wife. How long do you think our wives would allow such behavior to continue? Not for long, right? In fact, it would do serious damage to our marriage. How is our relationship with God different? Do we think He will put up with it forever? If we truly understood that God is with us wherever we go, then our behavior would change instantly overnight.

* What would you do differently in your day if you knew Jesus was right there beside you?