Relationship

There are many people in this world that are anti-God. It is sometimes blatant and sometimes very subtle. I  remember moments in my life where I doubted and sought to explain God with my own mind.  I came up with some zany, culture-influenced conclusions. At one time it was cool and free-thinking  to be agnostic. On the other hand, often, a lack of belief in God can be cloaked by extreme religiosity. Religion is man's attempt to explain and legislate God. It springs from man's desire to control and nail down what he doesn't really understand.


God wants us to understand otherwise he wouldn't have provided a book about who He is! God provided His Word to explain Himself. The Bible is not some book of prose to be admired for its literary value. It represents life at its fullest. It is about God and man and a relationship.  


Sooner or later, a person has to make the effort to get to know God through the Word.  Eventually it is the individual person who has to understand God and what He provided through His son. It is  real life that Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for, not religious exercise.We can listen to what others say about God, but eventually the Word has to become one's own, because God meant for each one of us to have it and apply it to every situation in everyday life. 


God doesn't make anyone do anything, He is very much in favor of free choice. You just gotta love Him for that! In fact that is exactly what he wants from man, free-will love and trust in Him.


Often people think that God can only work through someone else's believing. E. W. Kenyon asked the question "Why is it that people haven't faith in their own faith?" It's a honest question and therein is the  key to the heart of the ministry of reconciliation. The greatest thing a person can do for another is to encourage him in his own relationship with God.  I have had certain situations where people wanted me to pray for something and I felt uncomfortable about it because I knew that their own prayers were enough. God is accessible to everyone. Of course, it is great to pray and believe with people, but prayer is prayer and there are no greater or less greats in prayer.  Jesus Christ said in John 16:26-27:

These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

We may have been at one time anti-God. God was and never is anti-us. He has never changed. When we really get to know Him through His own words and understand the purpose of His son's sacrifice and Lordship, we will be confident to lay open our hearts and pray with confidence.