Psalm 63:1 (NIV) You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

There is a big difference in the way that you relate to things that belong to you and things that belong to others. You are very familiar with the things that are yours and many times tentative with things that don’t belong to you. For example, I recently had to rent a car in another state to be able to get around. The car was very nice, but I had to get used to how everything worked, right down to even how to put the car in drive. The gears were in a totally new place that I had never seen before. While it was a very nice car, I have my car set up for me. It has what I need such as an extra pair of glasses, plenty of napkins and tissues, a spare plastic fork and knife for when I order take out and they don’t include utensils, etc. I feel comfortable in my car because it’s mine.

When something is yours, you feel very differently about it than when something is not yours. That’s why it is so important on how you view your relationship with God. To many Christians, God is a God who is good, righteous and loving, but they know Him from afar. They treat Him as a casual friend that they really don’t know all that well, so their enthusiasm for Him and for the things that go along with the relationship such as praying and reading the scriptures isn’t really there. They may go to church and go through the motions. They may even volunteer in church to help with ushering or greeting. But it always feels to them like an outsider looking in than someone who truly knows Him. God is awesome whether people know Him well or not but when the relationship becomes more intimate and you make this God that you know, your God, then everything about the relationship changes.

Psalm 63 was written by David and he was someone who knew God intimately. I love the way that He spoke to God in verse one saying, “You God, are my God.” He was declaring God as his. God is and will always be God, but is He your God? Not your God because you go to a church or you grew up in a Christian home, but your God because you know Him as yours. He becomes more than someone that you visit in church on Sundays, becoming the closest relationship that you have in your life. David knew Him so intimately that he spoke about seeking Him with all of His heart and yearning to be with Him. Does that describe your relationship with God? To know Him intimately is to love Him with a love that continues to grow and expand because He is too wonderful to know fully. It takes time and the more time you spend with Him, the more time you want to spend with Him. Get to know this awesome God as your God. Everything in your life will shift for the better, including even your pain and your sorrows, and your love for Him will continue to grow. There is nothing so great as having the God of all gods as your God!

Pastor Joey Vazquez