The power of a personal relationship

As followers of Jesus, you and I have been called to a personal relationship but not a private relationship with our savior. There is no such thing as a private faith or life for those who understand that they are called to share in the sufferings of the Christ. We will experience many trials in our lives that will have no meaning unless we see them within the purposes of our identification with the sufferings of our Lord. We are not being sanctified or purified for our own purposes. When we are called into an intimacy of the Good News, we discover that those things that happen to us have nothing to do with us. God is doing his work to bring us into a closer relationship with him. We must let God have his way with us. If we refuse to let go and let God, we will find that our lives are of little use to him; God uses the broken and foolish things of our lives to bring glory to him. In fact, to refuse to let God work in and through us will make us a stumbling block to those who are seeking healing and life. – Ron Friesen