While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Mt 4:18-20)
Jesus called the Apostles to follow Him. To do that they had to completely change their lives by quitting their jobs and going on the road. As a result, they had a closer relationship with the Lord than you can imagine. Point being…building relationships require changes in your life. The deeper the relationship, the more your life will have to change.
Think of a dating relationship where you are looking to find a spouse. Early in the relationship many life changes happen automatically – like the way you spend your time, the different places you go, the different things you do, the way you spend money, etc. In addition, you begin to make intentional changes which shed better light on you (for instance: having better manners, talking without being crude, stop looking at people other than your partner, etc). Although changing these habits might be a little hard, you are willing to make them for the sake of the relationship because it is worth it to you. You are willing to do everything possible to keep the other person in your life and grow the relationship.
As time goes on and the relationship gets even more serious, your partner might even make requests of you. They might ask you to date exclusively, quit smoking, or in time they may request marriage. If you agree to those requests the way you live will change even more. But remember, all along the way in the relationship the decision to change or not is always up to you. At any point you can decide that you don’t want to change your lifestyle and the result will be that the relationship does not progress forward or deepen anymore. On some level you decide whether the relationship is worth making the changes for or not.
In a nutshell, if you are not willing to make lifestyle changes for a relationship you won’t start a new one or you won’t deepen an existing one.
Your relationship with the Lord is similar. When you were first saved some changes should have happened in your life automatically, like going to church, tithing, reading the Bible, sharing the gospel excitedly, etc. You probably also made intentional changes to get rid of things that you knew were inappropriate, like swearing, gambling, getting drunk, etc. As your relationship with the King progresses, He will desire more changes in your life. He will convict you to remove something from your life or even add something that is missing. When those things happen, it is up to you to make those changes or not. Consciously or subconsciously, you decide whether your relationship with Him is worth making those changes.
If you are not willing to make life changes for God, your relationship with Him will stagnate. The biggest change you need to make in your life is to spend a lot of time with the Lord daily. The top reason people become closer to one another is by spending a lot of time together in deep, honest, and real conversation. The Apostles spent three years of their lives with Jesus 24 x 7. As they did, their lives became more spiritually focused, and they went from not knowing Jesus at all to becoming His friends:
You are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father. (Jn 15:14-15)
As you spend time with Jesus your lifestyle will change and you will go from being an acquaintance to being His friend. As you make lifestyle changes for the Lord, your relationship with Him will deepen and strengthen and you will be a Godlier person. Make the life changes to deepen your relationship with the Almighty. Start with spending more time with Him and striving to please Him more.
Think about it…
Are you willing to make lifestyle changes for your relationship with the Lord?
Are you deceived to think that the way you live has no impact on your relationship with the Lord?
What “nets” (habits, comforts, or security blankets) are you holding onto that Jesus might be asking you to leave behind?
What areas of your your—such as how you spend time, money, or attention—is God asking you to change to draw closer to Him?
If a deeper relationship with God requires a greater lifestyle change, am you treating Him as if He is worth more than your current comforts and routines?
Where has your spiritual growth plateaued, and is it because you have refused to make a specific change or surrender a specific control to God?
When God makes a “request” of you through His Word or prayer, do you see it as a burden or as an invitation to a closer relationship?
Scripture to consider…
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; He repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not turned from my God to wickedness. Indeed, I have kept all His ordinances in mind and have not disregarded His statutes. I was blameless toward Him and kept myself from sinning. So the Lord repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. (Ps 18:20-24)
You are My friends if you do what I command you. (Jn 15:14)
So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him. (1 Ki 19:19-21)
Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us (Heb 12:1)
