How Should My Relationship With God Affect Me? Series

The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.

—Victor Frankl

Gen 12

Now the LORD had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

2 I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

How Should My Relationship

With God Affect Me?

How should My Relationship with my God affect me?

It should change how I view my past.

“Get out of your country,…”

-When we hear God, really hear Him, it will be words that command us to leave the past. He does not let us dwell in the past. Get out of your comfort zone.

-I must be willing to let the familiar go!

Jesus said it this way, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

2 “If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven. 33 But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven. 34 “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, I came to bring a sword. 35 I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Your enemies will be right in your own household! 37 If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it.

The cross! This is the fundamental teaching of Christianity.

Absolute loyalty to Jesus and His ways.

How do you let it go of your life? Serious business!

If you bowed your head right now, and asked God, “Lord, look at my life. Show me what you want me to give up in order to follow You. Show me what You want me to deny? Lord, if it is grudges that I’ve held on to in core relationships, show me. If it is hurts that I will not let go, show me. If it is my stuff, my wealth, my earthly toys, show me. Lord, I long to sense Your assignment. The assignment you have for me. I renounce all and anything that gets in the way of hearing Your voice to me. God, here am I, send me!”

I know the Lord will answer this prayer, IF you are serious! If you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness! He will direct and guide you.

If your willingness to believe or trust in what Jesus will do with you if you give Him your complete self and not trusting in what you can make of yourself.

Attitude needed: Commitment

The author Rudyard Kipling wrote, “If you don’t get what you want, it is a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.” How badly do you want to reach your potential and fulfill your true purpose in life? Are you hungry for Christ? It will take the passion of commitment on your part to keep growing, learning, and going forward.

How Should My Relationship With God Affect Me?

It should change how I look at my present.

4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

-God is working around you. Sometimes we just can’t see it!

ILL: Put on new glasses! See green!

He working with you: Character issues. The Bible is filled with God working on the character issues of those He was working with. He is a developer of people.

-Self-discipline—One man said, “In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves.… Self-discipline with all of them came first.”