Have you ever taken time to evaluate what you believe? I mean really sit down and think about what you believe about God and why exactly you believe it? It’s easy to coast through and just go along for the ride with faith. Often times we just accept what we were taught as children or adopt the faith of our parents…for better or for worse.

Today I’m excited to share an excerpt from the book Start Here: Beginning A Relationship With Jesus by David Dwight and Nicole Unice. Nicole is an author buddy of mine and I love everything she puts in print. Together, David and Nicole wrote Start Here as a resource for new believers, long time belivers and ministry folks alike. This is a go to book to freshen up on where you stand or to pass along to someone who is just starting their journey with Jesus. Check out the excerpt below to get a feel of this great new book.

 

IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIP

In a good relationship, we’re trying to stay in touch with each other, trying to keep close. This means we’re seeking to share our thoughts and experiences because in close relationships, we share our whole lives. This is true of a relationship with God. If you read the Bible, you’ll find this theme throughout—that God is love (1 John 4:8) and that He created human beings to live in full, life-giving relationship with Him.

However, it seems whether it’s with other people or with God, we have ways of fouling up our relationships—by retreating into ourselves, behaving selfishly, hurting others. When this happens, we feel it. We know something is not right, and the relationship becomes distant. Over time, it can feel like there isn’t a relationship at all.

But if the relationship is important, we might seek to reconcile. One of the ways we do this is by asking good questions of each other, questions like, “How are you really doing?” and, “Can you help me understand?” Such questions have the goal of bringing two people closer together, closer to a shared perspective and understanding. People who are gifted in the art of relationships are often people who ask some of the best questions. Here’s where God is a pro.

THE FIRST QUESTION

Right at the beginning of the Bible, God demonstrated this aspect of His character through His relation- ship with Adam and Eve—a trusting, transparent, daily relationship. The example of their relationship suggests that when it comes to life with God, we’ve got nothing to hide and nothing to fear. In the third chapter of Genesis (the first book of the Bible), we read about Adam and Eve choosing to turn from God and live life apart from Him. When this happens, the relationship with God was broken—as happens in any close relationship when one party turns away. And when the relationship was broken, God came looking for Adam and Eve. He didn’t come to punish or shame them. He came looking to restore the relationship.The account suggests that God was saddened and hurt that the transparent relationship they had known no longer felt the same way:

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:8–9)

Think for a moment about the depth of this question: Where are you? It’s essentially a directional question with the intent to find someone, and in this instance, God wanted to find Adam and Eve for the purpose of reconciling. It’s the first time we see God taking an initial step to help restore the relationship that we people have broken. Since that time, He’s always been taking the first steps to restore this rela- tionship. And when you can sense God stirring in your life, you, too, are a person He’s seeking out, so that you might be able to know Him and live in a relationship with Him.

Where are you? may be a geographically related question—as in, “I’m home; where are you?” But where are you? can be deeper, too. It can be a question about your emotional state, your thoughts or feelings. It’s significant that this profoundly relational ques- tion is the first question God asks in the Bible. God is asking it because He wishes for the relationship to be restored and reconciled. It’s God’s first question, and it reveals His heart—that He deeply misses this relationship. If God were to ask you right now, “Where are you?” what might you say to Him?

***I would love to know your answer to when God asks, Where Are You? Of course he KNOWS where you are, but this act of asking gives us the opportunity to evaluate where we are emotionally, spiritually, mentally.

Thoughts? Leave a comment!

Be sure to check out Start Here: Beginning A Relationship With Jesus

About my friend Nicole:

 

Nicole Unice is on the ministry staff at Hope Church and author of She’s Got Issues. She writes for Relevant Magazine, Leadership Journal, and Today’s Christian Woman and speaks nationwide for retreats and leadership events. Nicole and her husband Dave have three children.