We are continuing our short series on building an ongoing, flourishing, satisfying relationship with God. Today I want to share with you the single most important foundation of my own walk with the Father. It is a truth many of us have heard, yet few of us have fully connected the dots in daily life. This one revelation changed everything for me.
If I could sit with the average believer and ask for complete honesty, I think most would describe their relationship with God in three shifting states. Sometimes they feel really close — perhaps at church, at a conference, or in a powerful time of prayer. Sometimes they feel ashamed and distant — weighed down by sin, guilt, or the sense that they are not worthy to approach the Father. And for the vast majority of the time, they simply feel neither. Life is busy. Kids need feeding, work must be done, the car needs petrol, and somehow hours or even days can pass without any conscious awareness of God’s presence. We live as practical atheists for stretches of time, even though we know better.
Jesus did not come primarily to teach us how to build a relationship with God. He came revealing a perfect relationship with the Father. He said, “I and My Father are one.” He lived in complete union with the Father. Then at Calvary He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” In that moment He was separated from the Father so that we could be brought near. When you were born again, you did not merely receive forgiveness and a ticket to heaven. You were placed in Christ Jesus. You were translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
As it is written in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” From God’s vantage point, your relationship with Him does not go up and down according to your feelings or performance. It remains constant because you are in Christ. The relationship you have with the Father is not something you are trying to earn or maintain. It is Jesus’ own relationship with the Father, and you have been placed inside it.
Think of it this way. Right now I am in France. I have French citizenship and a French passport. When I landed in Paris the other day, the passport I presented made me as French as anyone else at that desk. You could ask me, “Graham, how French do you feel today?” Some days I love France deeply. Other days I might feel frustrated with it. My feelings do not change the fact that I am French. It is my position, not my emotion.
This is vital because we tend to measure our relationship with God by how close we feel, whether we have sinned, how much time we spent in prayer yesterday, or what the weather of our emotions is doing. We treat it like a human relationship that fluctuates with performance. But the biblical reality is different. You are in Christ. You are a new creation. All things have passed away. All things have become new. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You are dead to sin and alive to God. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
There is a beautiful verse in Philemon 1:6 that captures this perfectly. It says the sharing of your faith becomes effective by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. In plain language, the way your faith works powerfully in your own heart and in your daily life is by the constant acknowledging of who you already are and what you already have in Christ.
So the first practical step in building a flourishing relationship with God is this: stop trying to get close to God and start acknowledging that you are already in Christ. Instead of waking up and asking, “How am I doing with the Lord today?” begin the day by declaring the truth of God’s Word. “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I am a new creation. I am dead to sin and alive to God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am one spirit with the Lord.”
You do not start outside and try to earn your way in. You start inside Christ and learn to live from that reality. When you constantly acknowledge these truths — when you thank God for them, when you stand on them even when you do not feel them — something wonderful begins to happen. The feelings start to catch up. The emotions begin to agree. You begin to experience the closeness that was already yours.
Awake to righteousness and do not sin, the Scripture says. Put on the new man. When you awaken to who you already are in Christ, you begin to feel righteous. You begin to walk in the relationship you already possess.
This is the foundation. Everything else we talk about in the coming days flows from this truth. You do not become holy enough to step into Christ. You start in Christ and learn to live from that place. Tomorrow we will look at what to do when sin interrupts the enjoyment of that relationship, but never forget the order: you begin in Christ, not outside trying to get in.
**Selah**
**Scriptures for Study:**
Colossians 1:13, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 6:11, 1 Corinthians 6:17, Philemon 1:6, Ephesians 1:6, Ephesians 2:13, Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:1, 1 Corinthians 15:34, Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:3, John 15:4-5
**10 Questions for Reflection:**
1. When you think about your relationship with God, do you measure it more by your feelings or by God’s Word?
2. What would change if you truly believed your relationship with the Father is as secure and close as Jesus’ own relationship with Him?
3. Which truth about your identity in Christ do you need to acknowledge more often?
4. How often do you go through hours or a day without consciously remembering God is with you?
5. In what areas do guilt or shame still make you feel distant from the Father?
6. What would it look like practically to “acknowledge every good thing in Christ” each morning?
7. Do you tend to try to earn closeness with God, or rest in the closeness you already have?
8. How would your day change if you started from the position “I am in Christ” rather than trying to get there?
9. Which Scripture about your identity in Christ do you need to declare out loud more regularly?
10. If feelings followed truth, what truth do you most need to stand on today until the feelings agree?
