HOW TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD                                   

We all have a number of relationships in our lives – with family, friends, co-workers, customers, significant others, or just with people on the street.  The depth of those relationships depend, for the most part, on how important those people are to us.  Some relationships will be fairly intimate ones and others will be mostly casual, but it all of these cases, the relationship is between two (or more) human beings.  They will usually respond to us in some way when we talk to them, and we will either like or dislike what they say to us.

Our relationship with our Creator is something else entirely.  In my opinion, some people have a fairly close relationship with the God of their understanding, but many, though they might believe in God, have no personal relationship with that being.  They might say that it is impossible to relate to something they can neither see not hear, nor know for certain what is being communicated (if anything).

I can still recall the first time I saw the movie "The Ten Commandments."  For years, I tended to picture God in my mind as looking much as Charleston Heston looked playing Moses.   I would have told you, had you asked, that God did not speak to me, and it's quite possible that I was thinking of that possible communication as being like it was with God speaking to Moses.  I also felt that "God helped those who helped themselves," and though I believed that God existed and put the Universe in motion, I felt no sense of relationship.

Can we have relationships with God?  Today I would answer that question "definitely yes."  I have such a relationship.  However, it took me years of work to develop that relationship and it continues to develop to this day.  I am also largely unable to put into words that way that relationship developed.  Intimate relationships are hard to put into words; perhaps we have overused words like awesome, ethereal, miraculous and divine.  In any case, I will do my best to describe how I developed my relationship, but most likely one you would relate to God differently.  Of one thing I am certain, and that is that God knows the language that should be used with all of us.  We have to be open to hearing God's voice, of course, and for most of us, words are not used at all.

My relationship with Spirit actually began when, during a black period in my life, I took some advice and asked God for help with something on a daily basis.  As the days went by, I began to realize that I was indeed getting the help I needed and I began to have faith in this power greater than myself.  Slowly but surely I began to have conversations, mental conversations, with God on a regular basis.  My favorite prayers will begin with "Please help me," and often that is the entire prayer.  In recent years, my most commonly used prayer goes something like, "please help me not to think this way." 

The extreme beauty of this relationship is that the more I seek God's help and comfort, the more I receive it and come to depend on receiving it.  As Spirit gradually became a friend rather than a stranger, I began to feel a sense of comfort every time I sat quietly and thought about my blessings.  I am not always conscious of the fact that God and I are in contact sometimes, but if I stop to reflect, I am sure She is right there with me.  I am the one that moves away from the relationship now and then, but God is always there.  When Spirit becomes your friend, you can never be alone again.