Having a personal relationship with God is a powerful and transformative experience that can bring a sense of peace, purpose, and fulfillment to one’s life. However, cultivating this relationship takes time, effort, and dedication. In this blog post, we’ll explore some tips for building and strengthening your personal relationship with God.
Strengthening Your Personal Relationship with God
How often have we heard it’s not about religion but a personal relationship with God? Probably a lot. I know I have said it many times myself.
However, something I think we miss is how we build a personal relationship with God. Building a personal relationship with the people we do life with every day requires time, patience, consistency, and effort.
Trust doesn’t develop on its own.
Love isn’t curated by mere words.
Forgiveness doesn’t bear fruit when our actions continue to prove otherwise.
It will feel hard to have a personal relationship with God if our personal relationships are constantly suffering. Since we are a spirit being, everything we do goes hand in hand with the natural.
Many of the students inside my Spiritual Growth Mentorship program don’t always suffer from reading the bible on a consistent basis. They wrestle with accepting His love for them. They know God, but it’s hard to connect what they know to believe what they know. They don’t trust Him and find themselves constantly worried and full of anxiety.
Which leads me to this: If they are reading the bible on a consistent basis, where is the disconnect coming from that they are reading to what they are experiencing?
It’s a question I have asked myself in developing my personal relationship with God.
“I’m reading my bible. I’m studying the word. I’m going to church.” I would think to myself. “Where am I missing it?” Well, I think it’s where we all can miss it. We are not just learning beings. Our goal isn’t just to acquire more knowledge about God but to take what we know about Him and integrate that into our lives.
Strategies for Nurturing Your Relationship with God
Practice Regular Prayer and Reflection
Prayer and reflection are essential components of any personal relationship with God. Taking time out of your day to connect with God through prayer and reflection can help you build a deeper sense of intimacy and understanding with Him. Whether you choose to pray in a church or in the privacy of your own home, it’s important to make this practice a regular part of your routine.
Read and Study the Bible
The Bible is a treasure trove of wisdom and guidance for those seeking to deepen their personal relationship with God. Reading and studying the Bible regularly can help you gain a deeper understanding of God’s character, His love for you, and the principles that govern His kingdom. You can also use study guides and commentaries to help you better understand the Bible’s teachings.
Attend Church and Fellowship with Other Believers
Attending church and fellowship with other believers can help you build a sense of community and accountability in your personal relationship with God. It can also provide opportunities for learning, growth, and encouragement. You can participate in church activities, join small groups or Bible studies, and volunteer in various ministries to further connect with other believers.
Listen for God’s Voice
In order to build a personal relationship with God, it’s important to listen for His voice. This can be done through prayer, meditation, and reflection, as well as through paying attention to the signs and signals He sends in your life. Listening for God’s voice requires a willingness to be open, receptive, and attentive to His guidance and direction.
Building a personal relationship with God takes time and effort, but the rewards are immeasurable. By practicing regular prayer and reflection, reading and studying the Bible, attending church and fellowship with other believers, and listening for God’s voice, you can deepen your connection with God and experience a greater sense of peace, purpose, and fulfillment in your life.
How to Have a Personal Relationship with God
If I were to ask you what you think builds our personal relationship with God, you would probably say things like prayer, reading your bible, and going to church. All of which are good and necessary.
However, let’s change the word develop to intimacy. How do we create intimacy with God? That comes through trust, forgiveness, repentance, and love. All of which create intimacy in our personal relationships.
Studying my husband and asking questions about him doesn’t alone create intimacy.
Therefore, we know God but don’t live as God loves us because the basic foundational principles of all relationships are not there. We are trying to acquire more knowledge without understanding what we are learning. When we don’t understand, it becomes information. Without understanding, there is no ground to apply it because we don’t understand it ourselves.
Why is it hard to develop a personal relationship with God? It’s because of our unrenewed minds. The hurt hasn’t been transformed by the hope we have in Christ to anchor our souls.
God doesn’t love as man does.
God sent His Son to die for our sins, reconciling us to God. Forgiving us something we didn’t deserve.
Our hurt, when it isn’t met with our Healer, keeps us conforming to the way the world tries to handle hurt. Often alone or seeking revenge.
I walk you through the process inside my Spiritual Growth Mentorship program on how to take what you know and transform it into how you live. Learn more here!
Scripture tells us to know the word and to abide in the word.
Our lives and personal relationship with God are sustained by living the word of God, not just by our brains being stimulated by scripture.
It’s not that we neglect one to focus on the other. We need prayer and reading our bible, but we also need to act on what we understand, not just what we know. This is how we get the word of God from our heads into our hearts.
When I choose not to worry and release it to God, I begin to build trust, which is a part of intimacy. I am not trusting in myself to make it happen, but since I understand God’s character, I, therefore, know I don’t have to worry because He will provide as He always has.
When we live it, we begin to believe it. When we believe it, we live it.
5 Bible Verses for Building a Strong Personal Relationship with God
A few scriptures to remind us and teach us how to have a personal relationship with God.
John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Revelation 3:20, “Behold, 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.”
John 14:23, “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!””
The Lord has never left you. He desires a personal relationship with you.
Get started today with my book Face Off with Your Feelings or learning more about my Spiritual Growth Mentorship.
Rooting for you,
