Our Relationship with the Lord

[nam-eno]

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We do not awaken one moment and say, “We believe; therefore, we are saved.� We may make the decision to receive the Lord in our hearts, but the decision alone is not enough. It is our relationship with the Lord that we must seek.

Just as we made the decision to open our hearts, if we leave it only to that, we may close ourselves through sin. A relationship never stays exactly the same. With the stretch of time, a relationship either grows or decays.

If we take a relationship for granted, it decays. If we proclaim, “We believe; therefore, we are saved,� but we do nothing to preserve the opening of our hearts to the Lord, then, whatever we proclaim will decay. That which is decaying, if left untended, will perish.

What then is the meaning if we exclaim, “We believe; therefore, we are saved?“ What then is the meaning if we read scripture, but do not heed what our Lord has tried to communicate to us? There is no growth in our relationship with God. If there is no growth, there is only decay.

Yes, we should proclaim, “We believe; therefore, we are saved,� but we must live that belief. Yes, we should read scripture, but we must live the messages the Lord has provided us through His word.

A loved one does not truly feel love if all we do is tell them we love them. They feel our love by what we do, how we treat them. If we take it for granted that they understand our love, if we proclaim it only once, but stop doing anything to demonstrate it, then, the relationship decays. If left untended, it dies.

And so it is with the Lord. As each day passes, we must work to grow within the Lord. We grow within the Lord through our thoughts, our prayers, and our deeds to live God's message. It is through our prayer and our actions that we proclaim and express our love for our Lord, our joy in His grace and mercy, and our thankfulness for His forgiveness.

Not all days are the same, and through the pressures of time and the world that surrounds us, we are tempted to take our Lord for granted. And should we discover we have fallen to this condition, we must turn and tend to our relationship, lest we leave it left untended and it shall die – for if our relationship with the Lord perishes, we shall perish.

And so, we should take a moment and reflect, are we growing in the Lord or are we tending only to the world such that our relationship with the Lord decays. Are we growing or perishing? Are we living in the spirit of the Lord or are we consumed in the decay of the world?

What we do is up to us. The Lord has given us this freedom of will. What we do with it is what matters. If we use the choice to live in the spirit of the Lord, we grow within His spirit. If we choose to live in the decay of the world, we shall decay with it. If we do not tend to the spirit of the Lord, we will decay and perish. Each day it is our choice. Each day we do what tells God we love Him. Each day we do what tells God we take Him for granted. Each day He waits with His Love, His grace, His mercy and His forgiveness. Thanks be to the Lord.

Nam Eno