Communion with God Through Ordinary Means
January 13, 2022 • by Lara d'Entremont
Growing up, I craved the intimate relationship I saw that others had with God. I wanted to know him, to have him talk to me, and to talk to him like a friend. When I thought about something, I wanted to hear him respond. I wanted him to show me the way I should go and lead me forward. But it seemed like this intimate relationship was always out of reach. No matter how hard I strained, I couldn’t quite touch God’s hand or hear his whisper. Our relationship felt abstract and distant.
What I didn’t realize is that in Christ, God has provided the way for me to have an intimate relationship with him—one of speaking and listening, of learning and growing in love. Because of the gospel, everything I need for that relationship is already established for me, made available through God’s Word, prayer, the means of grace, and the Holy Spirit.
God Speaks to Us Through Scripture
The Bible may seem like an old, complicated book. But it contains God’s perfect, sufficient, flawless, and complete Word. As Paul wrote, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,” (1 Tim. 3:16–17). Psalm 19 likewise proclaims Scripture as perfect, trustworthy, righteous, the source of wisdom and joy, able to open people’s eyes and refresh the soul, and (vv. 7–9). The reason it can do this is because it’s living and active (Heb. 4:12).
By reading God’s Word, we hear him respond to us. He tells us what he is like, he tells us the gospel, he comforts us in suffering, he teaches us how to live, he strengthens our faith, and he even tells us about our own hearts.
God’s Word fully equips us to live the Christians life and have an intimate relationship with him.
“In Christ, God has provided the way for me to have an intimate relationship with him.”
We Speak By Prayer
Many of us struggle to have a flourishing, vibrant prayer life. Perhaps your prayers are often quick shots to heaven in moments of desperation. Or maybe they’re rigid, dry, almost repetitive recitals before you go to bed each night. We crave the intimate relationship others have with God, yet it seems like prayer can’t possibly be the answer because of how dull our own prayers have grown.
Yet our time in God’s Word can breathe life into our prayers, and in turn into our relationship with God. As we read and study Scripture, a response is drawn from our hearts. We’re convicted of sin, we’re awed by God’s holiness, we’re provoked to joyful tears over God’s kindness and mercy, or we’re encouraged toward obedience.
God has spoken to us clearly through the Bible, and we can respond with our honest feelings and thoughts. In this way, we enter into a conversation with God—he speaking to us first through his Word and us responding with prayer.
Next time you’re spending time in God’s Word, consider allowing the passage to prompt you to pray. Maybe offer praise for God’s character revealed on the pages, confess a sin you’re convicted of, or try rewriting a psalm as a prayer.
We Receive the Means of Grace
To communicate his grace to us, God has likewise given us means of grace: the preaching of the Word, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism. When I was growing up, I wanted new and flashy ways to grow in my relationship with God. I wanted a fresh word and a new outpouring in my life. Yet God has chosen something much more ordinary—a preacher with a Bible, bread and wine, and water.
The Lord’s Supper and baptism may seem pretty dull and lackluster. If you’ve been in the church most of your life, these simple rituals may appear boring and common. If you’re new to the church, perhaps they seem strange and unproductive. Yet they are the very means by which God has chosen to communicate his grace to us.
Baptism reminds us of God’s grace extended to us. Like how the priests of the Old Testament would purify things by sprinkling them with water, so our baptism is a picture of how God has cleansed us. As we witness the baptisms of others, we rejoice in this truth for them and remember this truth for ourselves.
The Lord’s Supper (or communion) is our habitual picture of Christ’s atonement for us. Each time we take the bread and wine, we’re reminded of how God’s wrath for our sins was satisfied by Christ’s death on the cross. It’s a shadow of the banquet feast we will one day enjoy with Christ and with our brothers and sisters for eternity.
The sacraments are physical signs we can see with our eyes and feel with our hands, and they remind us of our spiritual reality. They may be ordinary, but these reminders are meant to grip us with the reality of what has been done for us and what is to come.
“The sacraments are physical signs we can see with our eyes and feel with our hands, and they remind us of our spiritual reality. ”
Led by the Holy Spirit
Holding all these things together and producing growth in us through them is the work of the Holy Spirit. Without him, they would be dull and fruitless practices. But with him indwelling and leading us, we flourish like a flower pushing up from the dirt, stretching toward the sun.
As we study the Bible, the Holy Spirit works the passages into our hearts so that we may remember them in times of need (John 16:14). He opens the eyes of our hearts that we may understand the Bible and apply it rightly (John 16:13). When we fall back into legalism, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the gospel we so easily forget (John 14:25–26). The Holy Spirit frees us from sin and enables us to live righteously (Rom. 8:1–11). And he uses all this to sanctify us so that we may grow to look more and more like our Saviour (1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2).
As we pray, the Holy Spirit carries our prayers to Christ our mediator. He interprets our groans and cries and tells the Father what we truly need—even when we don’t know ourselves (Rom. 8:26–27). He strengthens our faith and helps us endure while we wait patiently for our final redemption (Rom. 8:23–24). Michael Horton sums up the work of the Spirit well: “The Spirit is not a resource that we use, but the God who claims us for his purposes, sweeping us unexpectedly and disruptively into his new world. The Spirit divides and unites, cutting us out of our covenantal solidarity with Adam and grafting us into Christ.”
Ultimately, what leads to an intimate relationship with God isn’t our own work, but the work of the Spirit realizing our adoption as children of our heavenly Father.
In his grace, God has chosen to draw us and keep us to himself through the ordinary means of Scripture, prayer, and sacraments. He doesn’t call us to jump through flaming, spiritual hoops. He simply calls us to lean on the ordinary means he has already given us, using them to work growth, godliness, and intimacy with him in our hearts.
As a young girl, I wanted new and flashy ways to grow in my relationship with God. I couldn’t see how these common practices that the church had practiced all these years could truly give me the relationship I desired with my Heavenly Father. Yet as I learned more about these ordinary means, they’ve become dear to me as God’s ordained gifts to the church for knowing him.
Lara d’Entremont is a wife and mom to three from Nova Scotia, Canada. Lara is a writer and learner at heart—always trying to find time to scribble down some words or read a book. Her desire in writing is to help women develop solid theology they can put into practice—in the mundane, the rugged terrain, and joyful moments. You can find more of her writing at laradentremont.com
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