Many brothers and sisters have this experience. When our relationship with God is not proper, we can’t feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and don’t know what to say to God when we pray; we can’t gain enlightenment when reading the Bible; when we encounter something, we don’t know how to experience God’s work and feel distant from God in our heart. … When we are in such a kind of dangerous situation, how to restore our proper relationship with God? Hopefully, the three points below can offer some practical help.
1. Come before God, and quiet yourself to have a true prayer
Maybe you’ll say, you pray to God everyday regularly, and never miss it. But do you know how to pray to get closer to God? The Lord Jesus said, “When the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him” (John 4:23). God’s words give us a path. When we pray, what God values most is whether we have a simple, honest, and quiet heart before Him, whether we can speak the truth and the words in our heart. Only by doing so, can our prayer be accepted by God. However, reflecting on our prayers, we’ll find that although we pray everyday, we often kneel before God but think of the matters at home or at work. Sometimes we pray just with our lips, not with our heart, only saying the same old platitudes perfunctorily. Sometimes we talk big, empty, and sweet words to deceive God. For example, we love our parents or our career more than loving God, but in our prayer, we say, “God, I love You! I’m willing to give up everything and offer everything to You!” When something bad happens in our home, we are passive and complain in our heart, but when we pray, we only say words of thanking God and praising God. … Such prayers can only leave us ever more distant from God. So, in order to restore our proper relationship with God, we need to change this deviation, come before God, and quiet down to speak the words in our heart to God. For example, when something unhappy happens in our home, we don’t understand God’s will and feel passive, we can say to God, “O God! I don’t understand Your will. I feel passive. May You lead me to understand Your will.” When we lose the resolution to love God, we can tell God with the true words, “O God! I don’t have a heart of loving You. May You lead me, so that I’m able to love You.” In summary, no matter what environment we are in, as long as we quiet before God to speak the words within our heart to God, we will feel close to God, and our relationship with God will become more and more proper.
2. Read and ponder God’s words often
In our life, we are often entangled by trifling family and work issues. As a result, we don’t have much time to read God’s words. This also causes our relationship with God to become distant. Therefore, in order to restore our relationship with God, no matter how tight the time is, we need to take time to quiet down, read God’s words and ponder. As God’s word says, “Every one of you must have a time for your devotions, a time when you put aside people, events, and things; settle your heart and quiet yourself before God. Everyone must keep individual devotional notes, recording their knowledge of God’s word and how their spirit is moved, regardless of whether they are profound or superficial; everyone must consciously quiet their heart before God. If you can dedicate one or two hours each day to true spiritual life, then your life that day will feel enriched and your heart will be bright and clear. If you live this kind of spiritual life every day, then your heart will be able to return more into God’s possession, your spirit will become stronger and stronger, your condition will constantly improve, you will become more capable of walking the path on which the Holy Spirit leads, and God will bestow increased blessings upon you.” From this we can see that in order to restore our relationship with God, everyday we need to take some time for devotionals and reading God’s words. We should avoid the people, matters, and objects that can disturb us, and quiet our heart before God. In this way, when we ponder God’s words, we’ll easily receive inspiration and enlightenment from God. Besides, when we read God’s words, we should reflect our recent condition in life, work, service, or interpersonal relationship, and see which aspects of us are still not after God’s heart. The more we compare to God’s words, the more we can know our inadequacies. Then we can find the appropriate words of God according to our situation and solve it, so we’ll have growth in our life. If we can often practice in this way, the Holy Spirit will move us more, and our relationship with God will be more and more proper.
3. Seek the truth in everything, and find a way to practice in God’s word
To restore our relationship with God, it’s crucial to seek the truth in everything. God says, “While seeking entry, every matter must be investigated. All matters must be thoroughly contemplated in accordance with God’s word and the truth so that you know how to handle them in a way that conforms entirely with God’s will. Things that arise from your self-will can then be abandoned. You will know how to do things in accordance with God’s will, and will then go and do them; it will feel as though everything is taking its natural course, and it will seem exceedingly easy.” From God’s words we can see that God tells us to view things and practice in accordance with God’s words, so that we can be commended by God. This requires us to seek the truth and seek God’s will in everything we encounter. For instance, when we have conflicts with our colleagues or family, when we meet setbacks in our work, or when we meet difficulties in our service, we need to look at all the big and small matters accompanying us in our life according to God’s words and find the way to practice in God’s words, and then act according to God’s will and God’s requirement. In this way, we’ll see God’s guidance and blessings, and our relationship with God will become better and better.
As long as we practice according to these three points, the problem of losing God’s presence in our prayer, receiving no enlightenment when reading the Scripture, and having no way to get through what happens in our life can be resolved with ease, and our proper relationship with God can be restored.
