Our Relationship to God

Our Relationship to God

The soul who lives before God’s face and whose heart is occupied with God will constantly experience things that are clearer, deeper, and of greater certainty in his spiritual life. This spiritual development leads the soul into a clear and purposeful relationship to God as well as to his surroundings.

Our relationship to God can vary; here we want to look at four things that clearly appear in a God-fearing soul. They are: supplication, prayer, thanksgiving, and worship.

1) Supplication. Put in other words, supplication is calling on the Lord by mentioning Him by His name, His worthiness, and His power. Supplication is an acknowledgment of God. The Lord said to Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.” And the Lord passed before Moses, proclaiming His name, saying, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty,” etc. Ex. 33, 34. Here Moses learned to know God’s name. God’s name is what He is. Jesus says, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.” John 17:6. Manifesting God’s name is manifesting what God is.

The person who calls on the Lord calls out His name. When Moses came into need for the people when they sinned after the spies’ return, he called out to God and mentioned His name precisely as God Himself had said it. Moses says, “And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, ‘the Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression,” etc. Moses had taken note of what God had called Himself, what He had said concerning Himself. After the people had sinned, Moses called on the name of the Lord as the Lord had called out His name to him. God, who is faithful, does not fail His name; He always makes sure of that. Therefore He says to Moses, “I have pardoned, according to your word . . . .” Num. 14:20.

Paul speaks about letting all your requests be known to God by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Phil. 4:6. It is good to know what His name is, what He is, and what He has—the One of whom we are asking something. Supplication usually precedes prayer; it is an acknowledgment of God, His goodness, His power, and His grace. Just as God let His goodness go past our face, so we now let His goodness pass by His face through supplication.

You believe in the person on whom you are calling. If a soul has not heard much about Christ—yet he has heard sufficiently to know that He can save—about him it is written, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

It is said about Georg Müller, who established and maintained several children’s homes by faith, that he did not so much call on the Lord’s mercy as he called on His faithfulness. In his work, he called on God with a clear understanding, for he knew that God had given His promises in His mercy, and that He kept them in His faithfulness. The witness in the sky is faithful (Ps. 89:37); for it is written about Him that He supports the fatherless and the widow.

2) Prayer. Just as supplication is the acknowledgment of God, so prayer is the acknowledgment of our need. After we have called on God and have reminded Him of what He is and has, so we will call on Him about what we need. We know that He can fill all our need.

We must expect our prayers to be answered according to our need and according to His power. Certainty in prayer produces certainty of expectation. Moses prayed for certain things and expected precisely what he had prayed for. Moses went away from the people and before the Lord’s face with supplication and prayer. Jesus speaks about praying in a secret place and being rewarded openly. Those who pray for certain things in a secret place are searching and expectant. They are always looking for and expecting an answer to their prayer. Unfortunately, believers often forget what they have prayed for. In other words, they do not expect their prayers to be heard. If I asked my neighbor for something but didn’t bother about it anymore, what would the neighbor think? But is God not more than the neighbor? Let us therefore treat God with honor as the fear of Him requires. Do not let your prayers be just thoughtless figures of speech.

You can pray over and over again for certain things in secret, expecting an answer openly. And God is faithful; He will not let you be put to shame, for His mercy is over us as we hope in Him. Ps. 33:22. His mercy is over us to the same degree that our hope is in Him, or as Jesus says: it will be done to you according to your faith. Such a prayer life is rich with varying effects. You will see that God is as you have called upon Him. This creates a remarkable confidence in God and fills us with abundant thanksgiving.

3) Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the acknowledgment of having received God’s benefits. The person who is slow to give thanks is on the way of forgetting the Lord’s kindness toward him. The person who remembers God’s kindness will always be abundantly thankful. He who offers the sacrifice of praise, honors Me, says the Lord. The psalmist says, “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works.”

Perhaps you are like one of the nine lepers who forgot to return to give God the glory.

When Paul speaks about forgetting those things which are behind, he does not mean that we shall forget God’s benefits toward us; on the contrary, he often points to what he has been, and to God’s goodness toward him.

Believers often pray that the Lord might bend them. God has granted you an abundance of goodness; remember what He has done; remember what you have been. Mention it to the Lord, and you will soon lie humbly and crushed before His feet, filled with thanksgiving, worship, and praise.

We prefer to have God as a helping God in things that lie ahead; nevertheless, He has been a God for us especially in situations in the past; for I know Him as much as I have seen of Him. Therefore when David says, “God, You are my God . . . .” (Ps. 63:1), he could say this on the basis of what God had been to him. It was the sum total of his entire understanding of God. Based on this understanding, he could confidently put his future into God’s hand and say, “Only in hope toward God is my soul quiet . . . .” Ps. 62:1. Therefore David could gather everything into this one cry: “God, You are my God . . . .”

A thankful soul is always humble. He is apprehended of God’s goodness and his own unworthiness. He is thankful for the most, and he is thankful for the least. He is thankful for everything. God’s exceeding goodness has crushed his heart. He says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and forget not all His benefits . . . .” By looking into God’s manifold grace, he is apprehended by God’s own greatness, majesty, and power.

4) Worship. You can call a person, ask him for something, and thank him, but you would never worship any person. God alone is worthy of worship. It is the purest state a soul can enter into.

When a soul’s eyes are opened to God’s greatness, majesty, and power, he falls on his face, worshiping Him who lives forever and ever. Then the soul cries out, “Holy, Holy, Holy are You,” his heart embracing God, giving Him the honor, praise, and power.

What an extraordinary state this is before God’s face, an inexplicable life that is filled by the person of God. With profound simplicity and forgetfulness of everything around him, the soul gives honor to the Lord of glory.

It is written about the twenty-four elders that they fell down before Him who sits on the throne and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever, and that they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Rev. 4:10-11. In Revelation 5:12 it is written, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

David says, “Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” Ps. 29:2.