When the word relationship is mentioned, it might just take on various meanings to different ones of us.
When I was a student on campus, when one said, “that girl is in a relationship” it would usually mean she is in a romantic engagement with a young man. Well, to someone else, it might mean any kind of involvement with another person. Still to another, the word may come across as unpleasant, reminding them of a painful relationship gone sour; could be with a friend, relative or colleague.
Regardless of what angle you view relationship from, the word relationship is a word that will often describe a connection and or engagement one has or has had with a particular person or people. You and I are human. Whether you agree with me or not, we are relational. The degree to which we relate will vary from one person to another. Our varying backgrounds, orientation and exposure may affect how we relate. The bottom line is, we are relational. We need to relate in order to function holistically.
I now want to focus on what I consider to be the most important and foundational relationship that you will need for this holistic functioning. It is so important that I have chosen to refer to it with the definite article, the. It is the relationship that will be critical in helping you relate wholesomely with everyone else. This is the relationship with God.
We get to first know about this relationship when we interact with God’s Word, the Bible. I will talk about God’s Word in the next blog that I’ll post in a few days. When you read the creation story in the Bible, Genesis 1:26 gives us an account of how God created man. This is what it says:
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (NKJV)
I noted two things about man’s creation in the verse above:
- Man was made in the image of God
- Man was appointed by God to have dominion over what God had created.
My personal observations of mankind have made me conclude that mankind has mostly focused on the second point, a lot of times ignoring the first point. Some will even assume it doesn’t exist. For instance, man has come up with amazing innovations; such have included medical breakthroughs, computer inventions, the internet and the like. A lot of these discoveries have made life more comfortable and easier. All this as mankind exercised his dominion over the earth.
Focus on point two first rather than one, in my view, is what has continued to wreak havoc, bringing a lot of pain, suffering and sorrow as these very innovations have been used by mankind to destroy each other. This kind of focus has brought an imbalance, propagated by the fall described in Genesis 3. We have seen some individuals imagining they can do without God. And because man disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, the devil has worked through man to bring about some of the greatest atrocities orchestrated by mankind against fellow mankind.
An understanding of point 1, will pave way for an understanding of the relationship with God and a return to right living and relating with fellow mankind. You see, an image is a representation of something; it is a resemblance of something as it were. When we are created in the image of God, we are created in His likeness. We were created to represent God. We resembled God.
What this means is that we could relate with God personally, unlike all His other creation. God gave man a will. God’s will was that man would freely choose that which was good. This good included relating with God deeply and personally. Man lived in peaceful bliss, that is, until the fall. Man used the very freedom to choose, given by God, to disobey God. That relationship with God got destroyed.
God, however, wouldn’t give up on man. A prophesy uttered in Genesis 3:15 would later be fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ centuries later.
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen 3:15 NKJV)
Jesus Christ indeed crushed the devil’s head on the cross at calvary.
Through His death on the cross and His resurrection, Jesus became the Way to the Father. The relationship between God and mankind was restored in Christ Jesus. When we come to God, through Christ Jesus, believing His finished work on the cross was sufficient to purchase our freedom from the dominion of Satan, we experience freedom to relate with God as our Father. He takes us into His family.
Someone might be asking: Why did it have to take centuries before Jesus would come?
We would never have fully understood the redemption story without the old covenant, the law, the prophets and the Psalms. They had to first come because they were a copy of things to come, giving us peeks into the glorious new covenant that was to come in Christ Jesus.
What am I getting at in all this? why do we need to relate with God personally?
Because we have been created in His image and likeness. He is our perfect reference point for any other relationship we can have. Our truest satisfaction and fulfilment in life will come from this relationship; no where else. Only God can fully satisfy that deep longing for communion and fellowship.
He created you for fellowship with Himself first. Then others, in light of our relationship with Him.
Accepting this fact is the gamechanger if we have to live in harmony with others; if we have to rightly live out our full potential as women. This fact will be vital in your formation as a woman. Your Creator fully knows you. Only He can form you to be all He wants you to be. Any wise woman would want to relate with this Creator.
The beginning point will be entering into and continuing in relationship with God. This continuing relationship will be the foundation upon which real transformation will happen in your life as a woman, for good.
I hope to talk a little more on how this relationship will unfold practically for you as a woman. Watch out for our blogs on this in the coming days and weeks.