PERSONAL GOD

If I told you that Governor Mark Dayton was a personal friend of mine, what would that mean? A few things that would come to mind would probably be:

1. The Governor knows Nick’s name.
2. Nick and Mark spend time together.
3. Nick can call the Governor and visit on the phone about life.
4. Nick has a friend with a great deal of influence and power.
 
We could go on and on with this list. In the end, a summary statement might be - people that are my personal friends can be counted on to care for me, and they will communicate or connect with me while they enjoy our relationship. The Governor of Minnesota is not actually a close personal friend of mine, but if he were I would enjoy sitting with him to get insight into the inner workings of our government that would come through his particular point of view. A friend like the governor would also bring a substantial amount of influence into my corner as I go through life. That could really be nice!
 
One of the great joys in life is to go through it all connected deeply to people that matter to us. We care for them and they care for us. We fall and they pick us up. We laugh and they smile. We cry and they give us a hug. This is what a personal connection looks like. We are big on relationships at Oak Hill and that is why Relationship is one of our core values. It is also why we are continually reminded that we are about Connecting Lives in Grace and Truth.
 
The thought of a friend with the power of Governor Mark Dayton pales into insignificance when compared to being in a personal relationship with your Creator and God. You are cared for and loved not only by the one with great power but by the God who really enjoys your unique idiosyncrasies.
 
God has always loved me. He loved me when I was in speech therapy and He accepted me when acne went wild. God Almighty even put up with me in my “know it all” phase. My gentle savior was with me in the hospital bed when surgeries were forcing me to consider that my life may not play out like I thought. I could describe all the ups and downs of my days, but through it all a consistent reality was that God was... Which is simply the backward view of God’s primary name for Himself; Yahweh or Jehovah or simply - I AM…
 
All that you need is who God is. All your fears and inadequacies are known by God and He still wants you. To draw out our theme of Personal God in the next message I will be focusing on possibly the most well-known passage in all of Scripture; the 23rd Psalm. We will see God’s desire for an intimacy with us that brings us to a place of confidence and rest with Jesus as our Good Shepherd. I hope to walk through this with you on Sunday.
 
United with you in our Personal God,
Pastor Nick