Building a Relationship with God’s Promises: From Separation to Resurrection

 

Building a Relationship with God's Promises: From Separation to Resurrection

"Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." – Psalm 23:5-6

   Building a relationship with the promises of God involves understanding the benefits, privileges, and rights associated with being God's beloved child. Too often, people attempt to have a relationship with God while keeping His promises at a distance. Yet God and His promises belong together, much like a wedding ceremony and the marriage that follows.

   A wedding ceremony represents a commitment, but the marriage is lived out through an ongoing relationship. In the same way, receiving God's promises is not merely a one-time event. It is an invitation to develop an ongoing relationship with what God has revealed through His Word.

   Building a healthy and intimate relationship with God's promises can happen in stages. It begins with meeting and greeting. Then comes talking and getting to know one another. Eventually, one begins dating the promises, spending quality time becoming familiar with them.

   In this teaching, the promises of the Kingdom can be understood through three broad areas: optimal health, harmonious relationships, and overflowing abundance.

From Dating to Commitment

   Eventually, the relationship progresses to exclusive dating. During exclusive dating, we stop entertaining thoughts and beliefs that contradict the promises we have chosen to embrace. Instead of continually entertaining sickness, chaos, lack, and limitation, we intentionally focus our consciousness on health, harmony, abundance, and the goodness of God.

   Following exclusive dating comes engagement. Engagement represents a firm commitment and the setting of a date for leaving behind erroneous ideas, limiting beliefs, and faulty perceptions.

   Ultimately, the relationship reaches the point of public commitment. Our lives become a living representation of the promises we have embraced. What we believe begins to influence how we think, speak, act, and respond to the circumstances of life.

   Yet every genuine relationship experiences seasons of challenge. There can be misunderstandings, distance, disappointment, waiting, and moments when emotions seem to contradict the commitment. Our relationship with God's promises can experience similar seasons.

   There are times when people feel separated from the promises. There are times when they feel as though they have divorced themselves from them. And there are even times when they behave as though the promises have died.

   But the good news is this: the relationship can always be restored.

1. When You Separate from the Promises

   Sometimes people experience a season of separation from the promises. They may declare that spiritual principles no longer work. They may stop practicing the disciplines that once strengthened their faith. They may become discouraged and take a pause in prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, or other spiritual practices.

   It is important to remember that God does not abandon us. We may experience distance in our awareness of God, but God's love and presence are not dependent upon our emotional state.

   When we feel separated from optimal health, harmonious relationships, or overflowing abundance, the answer is not condemnation. The invitation is to return to the principles and practices that reconnect us with truth.

   If you have stopped praying, begin again. If you have stopped reading Scripture, open the Word again. If you have stopped meditating on God's goodness, begin again. If you have allowed fear to dominate your thinking, consciously return your attention to faith.

   Separation does not have to be permanent. A relationship can be restored.

   The prodigal son provides a beautiful picture of this truth. When he returned home, the father did not reject him. The father welcomed him.

"But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." – Luke 15:20

   If you have wandered away from the promises, you can return. You are not disqualified. You are not forgotten. You can reconnect with faith, hope, truth, and the presence of God.

2. When You Divorce Yourself from the Promises

   Some people go beyond temporary separation and mentally divorce themselves from the promises. They begin to accept limiting conclusions about their future.

   They may decide, "I will always struggle financially." They may believe, "No one will ever love me." They may conclude, "I will always live with lack." Or they may believe that their circumstances are permanent and that nothing can change.

   This kind of spiritual divorce occurs when fear, ego, past pain, disappointment, or limiting beliefs become louder than the voice of faith.

   The promise itself has not necessarily changed. What has changed is our relationship with the promise. Doubt and unbelief can cause us to withdraw our expectation and stop living as though transformation is possible.

   Yet even this does not have to be the end of the story.

   People can begin again.

   A past failure does not make a person damaged goods. A disappointing season does not determine the rest of a person's life. A financial setback does not have to become a permanent identity. A broken relationship does not mean that love and harmony are forever unavailable.

   You can renew your relationship with the promises of God.

   You can begin believing again. You can begin expecting again. You can begin practicing the principles again. You can open your heart to the possibility that what appears impossible today may look very different tomorrow.

   It is never too late to recommit yourself to the promises of God.

3. When You Become a Widow to the Promises

   There is another condition that can occur when people lose hope: they can become like widows to the promises.

   In this metaphor, the promises appear to have died. People hold a mental funeral for their dreams, bury their expectations, and walk away believing that all hope is permanently gone.

   They may say, "It is too late." They may think, "It will never happen." They may conclude, "I have waited too long." The promise becomes buried beneath disappointment, fear, and unbelief.

   But the promise is not necessarily dead simply because our expectation has become weak.

   Jesus declared:

"I am the resurrection, and the life." – John 11:25

   The resurrection reminds us that God is able to bring life where we see only death. God can breathe hope into places we have already declared hopeless.

   Perhaps you have buried a dream. Perhaps you have stopped believing that your relationships can improve. Perhaps you have given up on financial freedom. Perhaps you have stopped expecting your body, mind, or circumstances to experience greater wholeness.

   Whatever has been buried, do not assume that the story is over.

   Faith has the ability to awaken possibilities that disappointment has caused us to bury.

"But without faith it is impossible to please him." – Hebrews 11:6

   Faith does not require us to deny reality. Faith invites us to believe that reality can change and that God's presence remains with us while we walk through the process.

The Promises Can Be Revived

   There may be seasons when you feel separated from the promises. There may be times when you have mentally divorced yourself from hope. There may even be promises you have buried because disappointment became too painful.

   But separation is not the end, divorce is not the end, and even a grave is not necessarily the end.

   The God we serve is a God of restoration and resurrection. He invites us to return, renew our faith, and rebuild our relationship with His promises.

   Psalm 23 gives us a beautiful picture of this relationship. God prepares a table. God anoints our heads with oil. Our cups overflow. Goodness and mercy follow us.

   Notice the language: "my cup runneth over." The image is not one of barely enough. It is an image of abundance, provision, and overflowing grace.

   The challenge is not simply to know that the promises exist. The challenge is to build a relationship with them—to spend time with them, speak about them, meditate upon them, and allow them to shape our consciousness and our daily lives.

   When you feel distant, return. When you have lost faith, begin again. When hope seems buried, believe that resurrection is possible.

   Your relationship with the promises of God can be renewed.

Goodness and Mercy Are Still Following You

   Psalm 23:6 declares, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

   This is a powerful declaration of divine companionship. Goodness and mercy are not occasional visitors. The psalmist describes them as companions throughout the journey.

   Even when you experience a difficult season, you can choose to remember that God has not abandoned you. Even when you cannot see the outcome, you can continue to cultivate faith. Even when yesterday did not unfold according to plan, you can still approach today with renewed hope.

   Build the relationship again. Meet the promises again. Talk with them again. Spend time with them again. Date them again. Become exclusive again. Commit again.

   And if necessary, resurrect the promise that you once buried.

   Your story is still being written.

📖 Reflection: Which promise of God have you felt separated from, given up on, or mentally buried—and what would it look like to begin rebuilding your relationship with that promise today?

💡 Action Step: Choose one promise from Scripture that you want to reconnect with. Write it down, read it aloud, meditate on it, and take one practical step today that reflects renewed faith in that promise.