John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
For 25-30 years I have taken notes on what the Lord has put on my heart. It was just something that He prompted me to do that has helped me. When He speaks something to my heart, I try to write it down and revisit it. The first one I remember out of all my notes is this:
“Do you have a PERSONAL relationship with Jesus? Being a Christian is a personal relationship with Jesus.”
The word “PERSONAL” was how the Lord gripped me to run this life with Him early on in a serious way. I had committed my life to the Lord already, but it was when He showed me it was “personal” that it really started becoming clearer how this was the only thing important in life.
I’m thankful the Lord taught me this very basic and essential thing when I was so young. And around 30 years later I find that it’s still my burden: an intimate, personal love life with my Savior that I long to grow more in. I see that the way to this life is one way: through the cross (discipleship). My burden is that others would also have this as their life focus. So below I'll share very personal questions which I also ask myself that hopefully help stir more of a burden for this personal love life with Jesus too.
I hope you will not be condemned if you have not thought about some of these before or are not living them perfectly. The goal is to be challenged that at least you will want to go the same way in real experience, and that we can examine ourselves to make sure that we have indeed at least started and am growing in our real and personal relationship with the Lord.
And for those of us that have walked with God for many years, to make sure we have not strayed off of that path of personal love and devotion to our Savior. The much much bigger temptation for an older Christian I don’t believe is to reject Christianity, I believe it’s to keep Christianity and lose your personal relationship with Jesus... without noticing!!! (Matt 7:23, Rev 2:4)
Do I have a real personal relationship with Jesus? With God? Where I talk to Him and He talks to me? Where when I’m in a bind I run to Him and can’t wait to cry out to Him?
Do I have a real and personal relationship with God where I am longing to spend time with Him, like Jesus who “often withdrew to the mountains to pray”, even in the midst of a busy day, am I at least desiring for that?
Is my love for the Lord marked by: “I want to love Him better!”?
Do I know Jesus personally where I hear from Him, very sharp and specific Words as I read the Bible? (Heb 4:12)
When I read the Bible am I looking not just to learn more and grow my brain, but to have time with my Savior and grow my intimacy?
When I sing in the church words like, “Knowing you Jesus, there is no greater thing”, do I mean it? Do I sing with meaning? Do I pray from my heart?
Have I made the conscious decision that nothing on earth compares with knowing Jesus and now fully intend to completely and permanently walk this way?
Do I have a burden to give the Lord glory and pleasure from my life with this one short time on earth I have? Is my devotion a constant eager offering?
Am I learning what it means to pray without ceasing?
I think of these questions when looking at my own life, and sin:
Like a devoted wife who is working to be the best wife she can for her husband, am I judging myself everyday to purify myself from sin for my Beloved? (1 Cor 11:31, 1 Jn 3:3)
Do I have a real relationship with the Lord where when I am faced with temptation to go against what I know to be right, like Joseph I say, “how can I do this great and wicked sin against my God?”
If my passionate love goes down, and I sense some spiritual dryness, what is my response? Does that disturb me? (Rev 2:4, 3:16)
Is my love for God marked by a passionate hatred for sin, since that’s the one thing that blocks His presence from my life? (Isa 59:2)
Have I ever wept over my sin when I was praying, and seeing how God sacrificed everything for me when He didn’t have to? Even if it’s not a daily thing, have I seen it deeply at least some time in the past?
I may have come to Christ for forgiveness of sins, and salvation from Hell. Most of us are saved like that. But have I grown from there to be burdened not for what I can get from God, but what He can get from me?
Do I despise my flesh as the enemy that crucified my Savior?
Has my knowledge that I deserve only Hell (apart from God’s mercy), kept me from placing demands and expectations on God that He has to do things that I require, in the timing I require it? Has it produced a mercy in my heart toward every other person, is it keeping me from looking down on others?
In view of my own personal sinful past, have I grown in trembling in the fear of God, does it change how I speak careless words, or take careless actions?
Do I long to grow in despising money and the world, since that’s the main thing which is God’s competition for our devotion on this earth? (Matt 6:24)
Are God and Jesus my best friend? Do I share things with Him I’d never share with anyone else?
Do I long to have a constant conversation in my heart with my best friend throughout the day, even in the midst of busyness?
The world labors to have houses and properties. Have I labored to have a small secret room in my heart that is reserved for just me and my Best Friend? (Matt 6:6)
When trials come, do I run to Jesus first before looking to ChatGPT, and phone calls with friends and family? Do I lean on comfort from the Lord? Is He my greatest refuge? (Psalm 121:1-2)
Am I fighting all the “other desires” in my life that choke my life with God? Are there things I have given up, or fasted from simply because they were distracting me from being fully devoted to Him? (Mark 4:19)
Have I seen that nothing else matters? Have I found that comfort in every trial and setback and loss and disappointment - that I still have the Only thing that really matters? (Heb 13:5)
Am I driven to “redeem the time” because there’s only this short life to live passionately for my Lord and please Him, and it’s passing quickly? (Eph 5:16)
Even if not perfectly, have I tasted the joy and comfort and rest which is above all others of living in God’s presence? And I’ve seen that nothing else compares? (Psalm 34:8)
Do I have a longing for simple, consistent Bible reading because I've seen this is God's personal love letter to me, directly from His mouth? (1 Peter 2:2)
For those who have walked with the Lord long enough to know the Scriptures - do I love Psalm 73, Psalm 16, and Philippians 3 because I connect with hearts that are pouring out in devotion, that are completely captivated by Jesus?
When I choose Christian books to read, rather than being drawn to those which stimulate the mind, or coddle the emotions, am I drawn to those where from the writer flows a heart of devotion, and knowing God intimately? Have I seen that these are the same ones which also emphasize repentance and complete abandonment to my self - self-will, self-life, and sin?
Have I grown in a desire to deeply fellowship with others who have this same heart, more than to do other interesting things or talk of other interesting conversations? If I’m not there yet do I at least want to grow in that?
Yes, the true Christian life is a very personal one. These may sound like very high standards, but it's not discouraging - because even though it's impossible on our own to live, with the power of the Holy Spirit God can help us live like this. And it's a progress. Most of these questions I didn't ask myself early on, they come over a period of trying to walk with God - failing and getting up, failing and getting up. But I'm thankful by God's grace to have 'tasted and seen' that the Lord is good, and this life is a personal reality in Christ available to every Christian.
May Jesus be your best friend always, and may you know the Father and His Son PERSONALLY.
I've heard, "the only sin that Satan is not guilty of is laziness" - he will continue until the end diligently to destroy this personal devotion of ours.
Matt 24:12-13 "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures [IN LOVE] to the end, he will be saved"
May the Lord preserve us to endure in a personal fiery love for Him (no matter what others are doing or whatever else is happening), and never leave our first love. It's a genuine joy - like days of heaven on earth, to live in our little personal 'secret room' with Jesus while we're on our short pilgrimage here on this earth.
1 John 1:3 "what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."