How to Build a Close Relationship With God 【3rd point】

Harbor Right Intentions and Accept God’s Observation in All Things

If we want to build a normal relationship with God, then it is also very important to have the right motive in all things. Though there may be many who believe in God, there are very few who can act on God’s will in all things. Many people’s faith in God comes with their own personal motives and aims, and very little of what they do can be brought before God to receive His scrutiny. Take dedication and service, for example. True dedication and service should be built upon the desire to repay God’s love, without any personal motive or aim. Spontaneous dedication may include giving one’s money, one’s time, or giving one’s whole self. But what is undeniable is that, when we make dedications and we expend ourselves, it always involves numerous personal motives and impure intents. Take me, for example. When I saw God’s words saying, “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in My house, and prove Me now herewith, said Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10), I then actively dedicated a tithe of all my earnings. I believed that everything I was earning was given to me by God anyway, and so I should give some back to God and that this was something I should give as a created being.

But my own personal motive was kept hidden within the deepest recesses of my heart. I believed that, now that I had made this dedication, then God would certainly commend me, and I would be bound to receive even more rewards from God; that was the only reason I made such an active dedication. Let’s take another example from the words spoken by Paul the apostle: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day” (2 Timothy 4: 7–8). I greatly approved of these words when I read them, and so I went out preaching the gospel in all weathers, from dawn till dusk, and I established churches and supported the weak brothers and sisters, hoping to use these deeds as capital to buy myself glory and a crown to wear. I trust that there are more than just one or two of us who harbor such ideas. But what we have never considered is that, by making dedications, rushing about and expending ourselves in this way, we are not performing the duty of a created being, but rather we are making deals with God, and we are doing these things to get even greater blessings from God in return. In that case, no matter how much we may dedicate, or how much we may rush about or how much we may suffer, what is the point in any of it? God scrutinizes the innermost heart of man, so how can we be commended by God by trying to deceive God and by using Him in this way? And how can we build a normal relationship with God when we do things like this? The Lord Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22: 37–38). “If you continue in My word, then are you My disciples indeed” (John 8:31). God requires that we follow His way, and He clearly requires that we dedicate ourselves and expend ourselves for Him without any personal motive or impure intent, and without making deals with Him or expecting anything in return.

We should expend ourselves for God purely to repay God’s love and out of our love for God, and we should give our all to satisfy God and serve God—this is the way we should follow as created beings, and it is the standard by which it is decided whether or not our faith is commended by God and acceptable to God. Therefore, in order to build a normal relationship with God, we must examine our aims in dedicating ourselves, suffering and expending ourselves for God, and immediately eliminate all the various impurities and improper motives which exist within our faith in God.