About a month ago I posted on the LCMS's Facebook page asking what the synod believed about a couple popular concepts in Christianity today were. One of the things I asked about was whether or not the notion of a "personal relationship with God" was Biblical. In the past I thought it was, but when I started questioning it, the evidence seemed to lean the other way.
I was surprised to receive my answer from the LCMS's Director of Worship, Rev. Will Weedon. I guess my questions were deep enough that they wanted someone high up in the administrative hierarchy to address it. His answer was a "Yes and no" sort of response. He was clear that we do have a personal relationship, but perhaps not in the sense that people like to think of it as.
The way I understand it, when there is talk of a personal relationship with God, it's sort of an informal friendship kind of thing. Phrases like "Jesus is my homeboy" or, as 13 year old girls struggling with being alone say, "Jesus is my boyfriend." This kind of mentality makes Jesus Christ the kind of person you'd go to the bar and have a beer with. A sort of buddy-buddy with God kind of thing. Then there is the notion that if you're sufficiently on fire for God, that he will routinely speak to you.
As Rev. Weedon explained, the kind of relationship we have with God isn't a buddy-buddy kind, but rather a Father-child one. We are entitled to come boldly before God and ask for what we need, and confide our troubles in him. We are also called to be obedient to God, and can trust that he will be faithful and trustworthy to us. Does this entail that God will give us divine revelations every other day? Probably not. Indeed we may not "hear" from God very often. But that is alright - we have all we need to hear from God in the Bible. The truth that may be tough for some to read seems to be that God is not our buddy but he is our Abba Father. Let's not trivialize it by making him our drinking buddy.
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