God is Love: Define The Relationship, A Guest Post by Kait Walla

DTR- Define The Relationship.

The 'DTR' talk is the point in time when two people who are casually dating have to have 'the talk' where they officially decide whether their relationship is casual and they can see other people, or if this relationship has taken a serious turn and they want to exclusively see each other. They have to define where their relationship is at and where it is headed. In The Bible it clearly states that if you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (i.e. a child of God) Romans 10:9 To state the obvious, if you have not accepted Jesus, you do not have a relationship with Him to define. Just going to church every Sunday is not enough, Scripture states that you must confess these things with your mouth as well as your heart.

Are you qualified to DYR (define your relationship)?

Once you have your salvation you are qualified to define the relationship you have with Jesus. Do you want a casual relationship with Him or something more than that--something serious? Now let me be clear here, I am not denying the fact that once you are saved you are going to Heaven and are a child of God! You are and that won't change, but don't you want more than that? Don't you want the whole enchilada? Don't you want to live out the perfect life that God created for you? For a long time I didn't even realize that I didn't want that. It wasn't on purpose but I did not see what was so wrong with my life that I needed God to fix, I believed in God and prayed every night. I knew God was leading and guiding me, but looking back, I think I only called on Him when I needed or wanted something. The relationship I had with Him was casual because of my choice for it to be. I loved God but I was just fine with the way my life was, I truly think that I didn't want God to come in and 'mess things up' for me.

II Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

Exclusivity

To examine myself meant that I needed to ask myself, "Am I all in?" Am I just a 'believer' or am I a doer of the Word also? Did I define my relationship to Christ as committed, or nothing serious? I know I am qualified because I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior but am I using my qualifications?

It was about a year ago when I realized that I was not serious about Jesus at all. I am a huge believer in respect. I don't like when I am talking to someone and they are not giving me their full attention as I always try to give people my full attention. I think as humans we have to have a mutual respect for each other because it just makes everything better. One day I was studying my Bible and reading in Matthew chapter 18 verse 11 and here it states "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost." It hit me like a ton of bricks when I read this. Jesus Christ came to Earth for one sole purpose; to save the lost people. To save all of us who didn't deserve it. Jesus did lots of things while on the Earth like serve others, humble himself, teach people the good news about God, be an example of the goodness of God, the list goes on and on. But all of these things boil down to saving the lost.

Me treating Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior as some casual, blasé relationship made my stomach sick. It was at this moment when I really mediated on Jesus Christ taking the nails for me, boring the lashing for my sins and your sins and everybody on this Earth's sins when He was the most perfect person to ever walk this Earth. At this point I started respecting what Jesus did for me by making my relationship with Him exclusive and serious. I now try to take the time to honor Him (and God) by giving them my time. I honor His sacrifices by seeking God first and foremost, it no longer matters to me what worldly things I used to want out of life because all I yearn to do is spread the good news of the Gospel.

I have been so favored in my life, more blessed than I deserve, but even when my back was turned to my Creator and my Savior and I didn't even realize it, they both were still extending their hands to me. No matter what I did, They never turned their back on me. This is why I choose exclusivity. I choose exclusivity because Jesus took the nails and died on the cross exclusively so that we may have life and life more abundantly. God took the time to create each one of us differently yet exclusively in His perfect image. God has chosen to have exclusive relationships with each and every one of us, and I don't want to see other people.

Fulfilling His Purpose | Philippians 2:13 | His Yes Girl, Kait