The Life of Discipleship, Part 4: Relationship with God

Our relationship with God—our fellowship and communion with Him—is central to our discipleship walk. As Christians, we have the blessing, honor, and privilege of having a personal relationship with God. It is almost unfathomable to consider that the Creator of the universe desires to fellowship with us and went to such great lengths—having His Son Jesus die on the cross for all humankind—to reconcile us to Himself! As the apostle Paul wrote, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

Jesus set the example of taking time for His relationship with His Father. We read in the Gospels of His rising early in the morning for prayer (Mark 1:35), withdrawing from the crowd to pray (Luke 5:15–16), and spending the night in prayer (Luke 6:12–13). He took time to fellowship with God, to commune with Him and receive His instruction (John 5:30).

Our communion with God entails spending time in His presence, worshipping Him, speaking to Him in prayer, reading His Word and listening to what He has to say to us through it, as well as listening to His voice as He speaks to us personally. We need to set aside time to praise and thank Him for who He is and what He’s done for us, “continually offering up our sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13:15) as well as communing with Him throughout our day. We need to take time to connect with our Creator and Savior who in His great love sustains our life and desires to commune with us.

When we take time in fellowship with the Lord, He responds. When we stop our other activity and enter His presence, we put ourselves in a position to listen to Him and receive His direction. He is able to guide us with His counsel (Psalm 73:24) and to teach us to do His will (Psalm 143:10).

Prayer, praising and worshipping Him, talking with Him about our life—our hopes and dreams, triumphs and failures, confessing our sins, asking for His help, telling Him we love Him, listening to what He tells us—are all part of that fellowship, friendship, and relationship we are meant to have with Him.

Two-way communication is a key element of relationship, and our fellowship with the Lord is no different—it takes both listening to Him and speaking with Him. The primary means of listening to God is through reading His Word, the Bible. He speaks to us through Scripture as we read it, think about what it says, meditate on it, and ask ourselves what it means to us and how we can apply it to our daily living. He also speaks to our hearts when we quiet ourselves and listen to His still small voice.

As we open our hearts and lives to Him—sharing our burdens, worries, and fears, as well as our hopes, joys, and dreams—our relationship with Him grows. As we set apart time to study and meditate on God’s Word and learn how to apply it to our lives, we grow in faith and trust in God, and our understanding and worship of Him. Communicating with Him through prayer, loving Him, spending time listening to Him, learning from Him, being in regular fellowship with Him, are all part of drawing close to Him and becoming like Him, as the following article highlights.

It’s astounding to think that God participates in our lives. Fellowship with Christ means that not only do we participate in the life of Christ, but Christ participates in ours, too. Personally, this revelation has helped me navigate life differently…

When trials or difficult moments come up, this can help us recognize how Jesus Christ is in each situation with us. When things go well and smoothly, we can see how Jesus is still in it all with us. He’s inclusive and intimate, and He doesn’t leave us alone to figure things out. He partakes in our life…

When we see the word “fellowship” in the Bible, it’s not only the idea of relationship. The word relationship means the state of being connected. So, even though we are connected to Christ (John 15), we’re invited into something deeper: fellowship.

A relationship with God is the initial invitation to being connected with Him. The salvation of Jesus brings us into relationship with Him. But fellowship with God is an invitation to intimacy with Him. It’s our continued connection with Him, and our means to spending time with Him… Not only are we in relationship with Him (i.e., connected and restored to Him), but we get to have fellowship with Him, where we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin (1 John 1:6–7).

This is the avenue, or the means, by which we become more like Him and see His life in ours. When we fellowship with Jesus, we become more like Him and reflect Him, and this deepens our relationship with God.—Tanya Remkiv¹

When His disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He taught them the Lord’s Prayer. When praying this prayer, we give reverence to God as the one who is holy and above all; we ask for His will to be done on earth and in our lives; we acknowledge our dependence on Him for our daily needs, and we ask for forgiveness for our sins (Matthew 6:9–13).

Jesus also taught His disciples to be vigilant in prayer, to “watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41). By His example we learn to pray in solitude (Luke 6:12), to pray in thanksgiving, to pray with other believers, and to intercede for others (John 17:20–26). His example of getting away from the busyness of life, taking time alone in prayer, as well as praying with and interceding for others marks the trail for all who long to walk in His footsteps.

One of the most fundamental things that Jesus imparted to His followers regarding prayer was about having the right relationship with His Father. Jesus constantly prayed to His Father, and He taught His disciples to do the same. We are sons and daughters of God, having been adopted into God’s family. When we pray, we are coming before Abba, our Father.

As Christians, we have been given the incredible privilege of entering into the very presence of God through prayer. We can commune with Him, praise and worship Him, and thank Him for all He’s done and for His goodness and grace—His unmerited favor toward us. We can bare our hearts before Him and share our most intimate thoughts, desires, and concerns, and bring our troubles, problems, and needs to Him. We can intercede for others in their time of need and commit our loved ones into His care. We can bring our every care, worry, and anxiety to Him.

When we’re weak and weary, we can unburden our hearts to Him. When we have failed, made a mistake, or done wrong and have sinned, we can confess, and ask for and receive His forgiveness. We can speak with Him when we’re joyful or sad, in good health or in poor health, whether we are experiencing abundance or are lacking, for we have a relationship with the One who not only created us, but who loves us deeply and wants to be a part of every aspect of our lives. Prayer is our means of inviting Him to participate in our daily lives, of asking Him to be directly and intimately involved with our lives.

Prayer isn’t meant to be a one-way conversation, with us doing all the talking and expecting God to do all the listening. In times of prayer, we also need to listen to what God wants to say to us through the Bible we read, through what godly teachers or preachers are saying, or through getting quiet before Him and opening our hearts to hear His voice. God can speak to us in a variety of ways as we meditate on His Word, when we ask Him to show us how to apply what we’ve read in our daily life and when we get quiet within ourselves and give Him the opportunity to speak to us.

Through His example and His teachings, Jesus taught the importance of prayer and, most importantly, that our prayers should be grounded in an intimate relationship with God. Besides our dedicated times of prayer, we are called to be in continual fellowship with God, in a sense having an ongoing dialogue with Him—talking to Him, asking His guidance, praising Him, listening to Him throughout our day. This can be seen as the meaning of Paul’s general admonition to pray “continually” or “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We realistically may not have the time during our busy day of work and life responsibilities to stop all our activity for extended times of dedicated prayer. But as we go about our work and duties, we can “practice the presence of Jesus”² by committing our thoughts, activities, and communications with others to Him constantly as we go through our day.

Let’s pray, first. Traveling to help the hungry? Be sure to bathe your mission in prayer. Working to disentangle the knots of injustice? Pray. Weary of a world of racism and division? So is God. And he would love to talk to you about it.

Let’s pray, most. Did God call us to preach without ceasing? Or teach without ceasing? Or have committee meetings without ceasing? Or sing without ceasing? No, but he did call us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Did Jesus declare: My house shall be called a house of study? Fellowship? Music? A house of exposition? A house of activities? No, but he did say, “My house will be called a house of prayer” (Mark 11:17 NIV).

No other spiritual activity is guaranteed such results. “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG). He is moved by the humble, prayerful heart. He is moved by prayer.—Max Lucado³

In His love for humanity, God ransomed us from the penalty of our sin through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We experience His love and are restored to fellowship with Him—through the sacrificial death of His beloved Son. We give God our love and reverence because of His love and forgiveness.

When we read that God “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), we understand this to mean that “God loves me personally.” Our salvation and relationship with God rest solely on the work of Jesus, given to us as a gift of love. His love is unconditional, regardless of our mistakes, sins, failures, or feelings of discouragement we may experience. We are loved by God as one of His children for the sole reason that we are united with His Son through salvation. Nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

Our desire for relationship with God motivates us to abide in Him through prayer, worship, and Bible reading, and living out our faith by serving Him and sharing His love and truth with others. As disciples, we earnestly seek His fellowship and His presence in our lives.

The call that Jesus gave to one of the churches in Revelation is also a call for us today: “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). In the culture of Jesus’ day, the invitation to share a meal with someone was understood as an invitation into relationship. As His disciples, we seek to grow in our relationship with Jesus, to know Him better, to love Him more deeply. When we spend time in His presence, we in turn demonstrate His attributes—His love, kindness, compassion, warmth, forgiveness, and mercy—to others.

To those who would open the door, Jesus promised a close fellowship, pictured as enjoying a meal together. … Today Jesus continues to say, “I stand at the door and knock!” … He sends out His earnest invitation for full fellowship. The One who holds the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19; Revelation 1:18) calls us all to hear His voice and open the door so that He can come in and share an intimate union with us. To those who respond, Jesus Christ guarantees the open door of eternal life and the reward of ruling with Him in heaven.—Got Questions⁴

Our relationship with God is exactly that, a relationship. His invitation is clear and simple: “Come and talk with me, O my people.” And our response? “Lord, I am coming” (Psalm 27:8 TLB). We abide with him, and he abides with us.—Max Lucado

We were made to be in a conscious and personal relationship with God. We who are blessed with knowing God are called to a personal relationship with the Creator. … God is the one who shares everything in our lives with us—good and bad. We hold nothing back. God can handle it all with no trouble. In fact, God embraces us no matter where we are in life.—Jovian Weigel

Friendship with God is built by sharing all your life experiences with him. Of course, it is important to establish the habit of a daily devotional time with God, but he wants more than an appointment in your schedule. He wants to be included in every activity, every conversation, every problem, and even every thought. You can carry on a continuous, open-ended conversation with him throughout your day, talking with him about whatever you are doing or thinking at that moment. “Praying without ceasing” means conversing with God while shopping, driving, working, or performing any other everyday tasks.—Rick Warren

“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2 NKJV).

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 NIV).

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).

Heavenly Father, I long to grow deeper in my relationship with You. I want to know You more intimately and reflect Your character more fully. … Increase my faith and trust in You. Deepen my understanding of Your Word and help me to apply it to my daily life. Strengthen my prayer life and teach me to listen for Your voice. Show me areas in my life where I need to mature and give me the courage to face those challenges. Help me to die to self daily and to live for Christ. May I grow in humility, compassion, and love for others. Lord, shape me into the person You created me to be. Let my life be a testament to Your transforming power. In Jesus’ name, Amen.⁵

¹ Tanya Remkiv, “What Does Fellowship with Christ Mean,” December 19, 2022, https://tanyaremkiv.com/2022/12/19/what-does-fellowship-with-christ-mean/

² Practicing the presence of Jesus, as suggested by Brother Lawrence, is a spiritual discipline that encourages a constant awareness of God’s presence in every aspect of life. It’s about cultivating a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus by actively engaging in prayer and reflection throughout the day, even during mundane activities.

³ Max Lucado, God Is with You Every Day: 365-day Devotional (Thomas Nelson, 2015), 22.

⁴ “What Did Jesus Mean When He Said, ‘I Stand at the Door and Knock’?” GotQuestions.org, https://www.gotquestions.org/I-stand-at-the-door-and-knock.html.

⁵ “10 Powerful Prayers to Get Closer to God and Find Stillness in His Presence,” My Prayer Item, https://myprayeritem.com/10-powerful-prayers-to-get-closer-to-god/.