Up until about 2010 I only talked to God occasionally, usually when I needed something, was praying for someone else, in a group prayer time, was in a crisis, or when making big decisions and plans. I usually wasn’t praying unless something specific was compelling me to pray, and days would go by where I didn’t pray at all.

To be honest it was the collapse of most of my plan for my life that prompted me to run to Him in a complete panic and cling to Him for several months out of sheer need.

After some time there I realized that, when I thought of spending time apart from Him, it seemed completely empty and pointless, and that moved me to a place of wanting and trying to share every moment of every day with Him.

As more time passed I came to realize that I’d been missing out all this time. I’m actually a very passionate and romantic person inside and I feel words like “always” and “forever” strongly at the core of my being. I consider God my soulmate and believe He’s the only one who can really fill that role, especially when it comes to satisfying desires like “always” and “forever.”

But really I think all of us have a place inside that is only satisfied by spending all our time aware that He is with us, and otherwise, that we search for meaning and fulfillment and contentment in other things that eventually leave us empty or wounded. And I am certain He deeply wants this kind of relationship with every one of us – an all day long, every day kind of relationship.

Genesis suggests that Adam and Eve had a personal “walking with God” relationship with God like this, before the fall. The bible talks about Enoch and Noah walking with God. It tells us about Moses talking with God face to face as a friend to a friend. What we read about Jesus is all about Him, being God, walking and talking with his disciples while at the same time He was in perfect relationship with the Father constantly to say “I only do what I see the Father doing.” And in Revelation Jesus told John to say to the church, essentially, “I’m standing right outside the door, knocking. If anyone hears my voice, open the door! I will come in, and we will share a meal together. Like friends.”

He wants that relationship with us. Adam couldn’t be with God because his sin got in the way, but Jesus paid for all that, and now we can be with God. He’s the one knocking on the door and He says in that for eternity the people He wants with Him are the ones who open the door and let Him in and want to be with Him too.

He says the ones who will be turned away from eternity with Him will be because He never “knew” them. And how do we really get to know someone? We talk with them and spend time with them in everyday life. Not just on special occasions or in special situations but in real everyday life.

So I really want to hear from you guys. What is your walking and talking with God like? How did that come about? What are your favorite scriptures about it?

Our good, good Lord is sometimes not content to just take away our pain, even though sometimes we might beg Him for just that. Much like a good fitness trainer, He is more about coaching us to a place of greater life – true, rich, full, life beyond what we can imagine or ask for. He can see us living in that life so clearly, despite all our current flaws! So sometimes we ask Him to relieve pain, but it seems He desires to lead us through pain in a way that grows us in the wisdom that leads to a life with less of some types of pain. And it seems He desires to lead us through pain in way that grows us to a place of more strength to endure more of other types of pain.

A few years ago, for about a year, I went through by far the most excruciatingly difficult emotional pain I had ever experienced in my life. For the first 9 months, especially, it was relentless. Hundreds of times I cried out to Him for relief. Occasionally He brought it, for hours at a time. First, and early on, He gave me hope that He had something wonderful for me on the other side, through a vision of Him carrying me away from my hopeless situation to a hillside full of hope and peace and beauty. Then, He began leading me through my pain – through loving brothers and sisters, through scripture, through words I heard from Him, and through things He opened my eyes to see. He wasn’t content to take away my pain. He wanted me to grow, to change, to be transformed, to a new man.

If He had just taken away my pain, I might have stayed the same person, sought out the same things in life, and ended up in the same situations. Instead, He led me through a transformation into a man who wants more of what He wants, one who craves the purity of living in His ways, despite the challenge of that. It is sometimes exhausting, but, having exhausted myself previously in the pursuit of things which were not from Him, I find it less burdensome to exhaust myself in the pursuit of those things which lead to eternal joy.