Have a Personal Relationship with Jesus
If you’ve grown up a Christian, you been given this advice many times in life and you’ve most likely also given this advice to others. But how many of you actually know how to have a personal relationship with Jesus? Some of the answers to the question of “how?” are:
- Pray
- Read the bible
- Have a daily devotional time
- Go to church regularly
- Join a small group, Etc.
I’m sure there are many other things that you’ve heard as well, but the million dollar question is whether those suggestions and methods have helped you have a personal relationship with Jesus.
Rick Warren, in his book Purpose Driven Life, says, “Greatest objective of our life: Learning to love God and be loved by Him.”
I think that this beautifully summarizes what each of our life’s mission statement ought to be. There is no higher purpose and objective in life than to learn to love God and most importantly, to be loved by Him. Unfortunately, to pursue this endeavor in life, there really isn’t a set system or checklist that you can follow. All relationships are unique and no two are going to be exactly alike. But there are principles that we can learn and learn to live out in our lives to make this pursuit a reality.
One of the most important principles in our pursuit of a relationship with God is authenticity.
What is authenticity? The Cambridge dictionary defines it as: the quality of being real or true.
Authenticity is not something that we come across very often in the world today and I think most of us can agree that very rarely do we show our true authentic selves to the world. But the one place where most people can show more of their true selves than anywhere else is with their family. This is where we are our most authentic selves as we take for granted that our family loves us unconditionally. No matter what we say or do, we generally don’t worry about whether our family will love us or not. We just take for granted that they are always there for us. Our family sees the best of us, the worst of us, and everything in between, and they love and accept us regardless.
Outside of our family, we tend to live like we are on a stage and giving a performance. We are constantly trying to meet the expectations of people around us and try to project an image that we think is acceptable or optimal. But living a life like this leads to frustration, exhaustion, and self-loathing.
King David did one of the most heinous acts in all of scripture. He slept with the wife of one of his most loyal, trusted and closest soldiers (some have made the case that Uriah the Hittite was also a close personal friend). Yet David slept with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, while Uriah was out fighting David’s war. Then when she got pregnant, David went to great lengths to try to cover it up to no avail. So finally he set up Uriah to be killed in battle and had his general execute the order.
Betrayal, adultery, deception, and finally murder. Would you believe that God refers to David as "a man after His own heart?" How is this possible?!! I would suggest that it was David’s authenticity with God that was key, and that authenticity was the foundation of their relationship. Read Psalms; they are filled with anger, despair, complaints, begging, fear, and eventually praise. David was authentic with God.
As this new year is upon us, I would challenge you to make this the year that you strive to be as authentic with God as possible. When we look at the cross, we are reminded that Jesus went to the cross for us. And Jesus was and is fully aware of all aspects of our lives; public and secret. Knowing everything there is to know about us, He still chose to go to the cross for you and me. With that reminder from the cross constantly before us, step out in faith and know that you can be real and true in your relationship with God because He already knows about all the skeletons in your closet and loves you anyways. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more; there is nothing you can do to make God love you less. So why not take a chance and give Jesus your authentic self and see where that road leads? I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised and relieved.
Jimmy Kim is the youth pastor at Marietta Korean SDA church. He serves as the chair of the East Coast Korean Campmeeting English Division Administration team, and has a passion for youth ministry. He is also a licensed chiropractor and owner/GM of a real estate investment company.