Young Adults' Group

Deepening Our Relationship With God

by Pastor Mark
December 18, 2015

Responding to God

Thank God for blessing our YAG-YC Retreat. I came to the Retreat with the desire to deepen my relationship with the Lord. Through the 3 days of learning about worship, how we should relate to God in prayer and dealing with the struggles of life, I found myself deepening my own relationship with the Lord a little bit more. It has to do with how I’m learning to respond to God and His Word that was wonderfully taught to us by Pastor Charles. How are we seeking to respond to God in the way we worship Him and in the way we live our life?

1. A heightened regard for God

I left the Retreat with a higher regard for God and His word. We should have a heightened consciousness of who God is, “The Mighty One, God the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down.” (Ps 50:1) God is described as the Mighty One and His word has been mightily spoken. His call goes out to all from the sunrise to sunset. He will not keep silent. This Mighty One will speak to us. What a wonderful privilege! Let us respond with a heightened regard for the Lord and His word.

2. A deeper renewal in God

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.My flesh and my heart fail;But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Ps 73:25,26)

I like these verses. It is such a joy to have our great God to turn to. Asaph’s desire for God is truly wise. In times when his flesh and heart were weak and failing, he turned to God for renewal. This was a point of renewal for him as he turned to God for strength. God strengthened his heart and became his portion. It is wonderful to see the renewing of the heart.  This Retreat was indeed a point of deep renewal of the  heart for me and I hope that it was for you too. Thank God for His strength and for being our portion.

3. A greater effort to remember God

“But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old.” (Ps 77:10,11)

Pastor taught that it is so easy for us to have “spiritual dementia” and to forget what God has done for us. Asaph took great efforts to remember not just one event or two but works that God had done that spanned the years. God had been personally involved in the history of Israel and it is good to remember His wonders of old, which Asaph did when he wrote Ps 78. During the retreat, I took time to remember the years…in fact 20 years that the Lord has blessed my life ever since I entered the full time ministry. I give thanks for all the works that He has done in my life and in Bethany. Let us seek to remember all that God has done for us.

4. A more intense plea for restoration in God

“Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved.” (Ps 80:3)

How wonderful it is to know that we can be restored! No matter how far we have been and distanced ourselves from God, we can plead to the Lord for restoration as Asaph did. He pleaded three times for restoration with increasing intensity as he looked to God, the God of hosts and the Lord God of Hosts. We can only humbly plead but not demand. Our hope is that God will restore us and He does restore. Let us all continue to seek His restoration until we are fully restored. Let us continue to respond to God in deepening our relationship with Him.

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