The Pastor's Perspective: A Personal God

It's one thing to get a gift from someone you care about and someone who cares about you. After all who does not like gifts?

However some gifts mean more to us then others do. For instance its one thing to get a Walmart gift card. Yet it means something more when someone intentionally gives you a gift card to one of your favorite shops. Its one thing to get a box of candy, but something else to get a box of your favorite candy. You see it is one thing to get a gift, but it means a whole lot more when you know someone wanted to personalize it. It means more when you know someone did not just get you just any gift, but they thought about what gift you would actually enjoy.

Personalized gifts mean more because you know the individual really thought about you. They mean more because you know that the individual knows you well enough to know what you really like. The person is able to personalize it because they know you personally.

When we think about God we need to remember that God relates to us personally as well. Each of us are different, special and unique. Not one of us is absolutely the same and God deals with us personally.

There are some people who think that God is this impersonal, supernatural being that resides somewhere in the cosmos. That God is unconcerned and disinterested in you and I. There are some who profess to be Christians who hold to this idea. Their view is that God just created this universe and all that is in it and then simply ignores us and leaves us to our own devices. Like a clock maker who took the time to make the gears and sprockets, who built the clock and then wound it up only to live it alone and let it just wind down.

There are some who might not say they believe this, but for all practical purposes they really do. They may not say out loud that they think God is uninterested in our lives. They refrain from asking God for anything. They feel as if they should not bother God with there needs or wants.

Yet as we study the scriptures we find that while God is the creator of the entire Universe. While He is all powerful, all wise, and all knowing. He is also very interested in you and I. He cares for us. He is concerned about us. The bible tells us that he has numbered the hairs on our head. The bible commands us to pray to Him with our needs and wants. To bring our requests to Him. There is no need or want to great that God can not provide and there is no need or want to small that He does not want to be bothered by. God's word tells us to cast our cares upon Him. The bible never tells us what kind of cares. It never specifies what cares qualify as important enough or big enough. The bible just tells us to cast our cares on Him.

As we read the bible you will find story after story showing us how God is a personal God. One who cares for what we are going through. One who we can pray to in our time in need. We see God's relationship with Adam in the Garden of Eden. We see God speaking to Noah warning Him and calling him to build an Ark. We see God calling to Moses in the burning bush calling him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.

There are many other examples though out scripture how God relates to various individuals in a personal way. In everyone of these examples we find that God related to each one of them differently. Sometimes God spoke to them audibly. Sometimes God spoke to them through dreams and visions. At other times God spoke through supernatural events like when He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. There were times when God sent Angelic messengers to deliver a message, like He did when He sent the archangel Gabriel to deliver a message to Mary the mother of Jesus. God spoke many times through prophets of God, and through God's word.

God is a personal God who relates to each of us personally, listen to what the Psalmist said about the personal relationship he has with the Lord.

I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.- (Psa 116:1-2)

The Psalmist writes "He heard my voice and my supplications". God hears our prayers and he hears our cries. God relates to us and we are able to come to him and speak to Him. He desire for us to come to Him and seek Him.

The God of all Creation. The God of all power and authority. This same God who spoke to Adam, Abraham, Moses, Mary and Joseph, speaks to you today and desires for you to speak to Him too.