Relationship

Tellyontellyon said:

Would people please tell me what their experience of a personal relationship with Jesus looks like, and how it has affected you?

Click to expand...

I'll start with the first. . .the Holy Spirit has made him real to you.

Tellyontellyon said:

Would people please tell me what their experience of a personal relationship with Jesus looks like, and how it has affected you?

Click to expand...

Chiefly He is renewing me to be more fully who He created me to be: myself in Him. This and my personal relationship is chiefly developed and involved in: praying Psalms (in them He speaks in my experience and through that I can speak in His, entering the inner life of God which tangibly even enables me to be more like Him), the Sacraments of the Church where I meet Him even more directly, writing letters to Jesus about my life circumstances, studying His life in the Gospels, and trying to live the life of self-sacrificing love that He did (failing and then asking for help again in this). I'd say that right now it is most analogous to a friendship between an old and mature person and a younger one, if that makes sense. In addition to of course being Lord and the King of Glory of course. I have a conviction that He is my Lord and I can never abandon attempting to follow Him, for He is the sole point where God and Man meets and through which we can be saved, and I have seen His salvation in some ways already.

Note: you'd probably really like this short article on Person and Personhood in Orthodox Teaching, for it is accurate for most Christians and presents what it is most fully, in addition to the responses you get here.

That’s probably a hard question for me to answer, but I will try.

From my experiences:

My first steps, to become an active participant in the relationship, was to find out who Jesus actually is. That discovery starts out slowly and grows with time. I believe no one can ever know completely, but our understanding will grow forever.
As I began to know him more, I no longer referred to him as Jesus.
It felt appropriate to call him “the Lord”, and so, that is the term I personally use now. However, I’m quite sure he is not concerned with the name we use.
Once I discovered who (what) he is, I began to feel a joy within, that comes from understanding something. This helped to develop a desire to know more. The best way to know more is to study the Bible, since I had a tiny bit of connection to it. So, over time, with more reading and studying, came understanding. This new understanding was NOT anything like my previous beliefs.
To get to the bottom line quickly, I will say that I understood what the Lord required of me. Somewhat. Understanding, like everything associated with the Lord, comes slowly and methodically.
Once I understand what is required, then I must DO it.
My life must change. My life becomes less of what I want, and more of what the Lord wants. As time progresses, I learn and understand more, and then i DO more.

Hope this helps.

Changes year by year, with all the good stuff remaining. This is not the boring stuff I thought it would be, like going to church, when I was a child.

But it is not easy, and sometimes, it is very hard. Yet it ironically is easy, in another sense, which is part of how I found my theology had changed, to see that it is Christ in me, that accomplishes what HE has caused me to desire.