Dear Friends,

We’ve been talking about how to connect to God, but in this article I’d like to help you recognize whether or not you are connected to God. It’s important to determine. Take your connection to your spouse or your best friend for an example. It’s one thing to be married or to be good friends—it’s quite another thing to be well married or well friended. Connection is a two-step process. Theoretically the two steps should go together. In other words, the fact that we’re married or that we’re friends means we should have a really good connection, but the two don’t always go together. Just because you are a Christian doesn’t necessarily mean you are well connected with God. We’re going to look at two types of connectedness to determine the quality of our connection with God:  1. the factual connection and 2. the feeling connection.

THE FACTUAL CONNECTION

Do you remember a time when you repented of your sins and trusted Jesus Christ to save you from your sins? As you look back, was it a clear commitment of yours, and did you see genuine change in your life as a result of it? Did you follow through on it, get baptized, and join the church? Are you active in church? Is your commitment to church growing? These are all facts. When I ask someone, “Are you married?” I’ve never heard anyone say, “I think so.” Likewise, there is a level of certainty about our decision for Christ that is just as factual. It is a fact or it is not a fact that we made the decision. This is that first step in the 2-step process.
*If you are not certain that you have made this decision to give your life to Jesus, head to the Knowing Christ page. There you can learn how to surrender to Jesus right now and be certain of your decision.

THE FEELING CONNECTION

Though the factual connection can be relatively certain, the feeling connection can never be quite as easily determined.  For example, do I feel close to my wife?  Could we feel closer?  The depth of connection is hard to know for sure when it comes to feelings.  To help you with this, below are four questions to ask yourself:

1. When I read the Bible, talk with God in prayer, or attend public worship, do I feel positive change as a result, or is it more a duty done?

When you are connected to God—even if you don’t feel great about coming to worship, spending time in prayer, or reading the Bible—as you begin to do those things, it’s like sitting down to a great meal when you didn’t think you were hungry.  The first bite makes you want more.  You will find the same is true in your relationship with God.  You get started and find yourself wanting more than you first realized. When public worship, reading the Bible, and time in prayer don’t really move me spiritually, it means something is wrong with my connection to God.  How about with you?

2. Am I sensitive about my sins? 

When I’m connected to God and I commit a sin—whether in thought, word, or deed—I’m bothered by it and motivated to do something about it.  The opposite is true when I’m not well connected to God. When I commit a sin, I find ways to excuse it or ignore it. The bottom line: I’m just not sensitive. Just as when I’m well connected to my wife and I slight her, I’m bothered by it pretty quickly.  When I’m not well connected to her, I tend to brush it off as her fault. As you increase your connection to others, your sensitivity to them increases. As you increase your connection to God, your sensitivity to Him and the Holy Spirit’s conviction increases.

3. Am I more receptive to more different kinds of people, or do I find myself increasingly wanting to confine myself to the folks who were already my friends? 

As I grow closer to God, my openness to people increases, and I find an appreciation for more kinds of people. Things about other people that would annoy me when I’m not close to God are often humorous and enjoyable when I am close to Him. God said if you love Him you will love people.  Therefore one of the real signs of good connection with God is receptivity and sensitivity toward an increasing number of people.

4. Is my relationship with God a pleasure or a duty? 

When I think about coming to church, is it something I’m really excited about most of the time?  If I think that illness, business, or family will prevent me from coming, am I secretly glad? Or do I think, “There’s got to be a way we can work this out.  I really want to…teach Sunday School…sing in the choir…worship God in church…sit in my Sunday School class…be involved in our Sunday School’s mission project…go on the mission trip” – or whatever it may be? When we are close to God, it is a pleasure to do things for Him and to spend time with Him.  It is a pleasure to give to Him.  But when I’m not especially close to God, spending time with Him and doing things for Him become a duty, and the longer the status is duty the more those tasks are agony rather than pleasure. 

We’ve spent a lot of time looking at how we get back to being close to God when we are not.  I hope these questions will serve as a good diagnosis to help you realize that you may not be as close to God as perhaps you thought you were. If so, I pray it will help you get back in touch with Him.  It’s a joy being your pastor.  I’ll see you Sunday with a message from God on my heart.


Your Pastor,