RELATIONSHIPS by Della Rees

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 9, 1900

RELATIONSHIPS

By Della Rees

Della Rees, in Triumphs of Faith.

It is a very common thing for Christians, and even deeply spiritual ones, to give much of their attention to the matter of experience; and it is perhaps a fact that a large per cent of our spiritual instructors call our attention in this direction.

People are frequently asked, “What is your experience?” or, “What kind of an experience have you to-day?” Some are much elated, and rejoice to tell of a very blessed experience in Christian life; while others are much distraught, because they have not found such blessedness; and yet others realize they have not so good an experience as they once had. And many become morbidly occupied with their mental and spiritual conditions, utterly failing to see that it is our relationships that may be secure and eternally the same, and not our experiences.

Experience is a transient—that is, an ever-changing—fruit of life. We are not called to experiences; they are incidents of our calling. We are called “unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” And what does fellowship mean? Something more than a fellow feeling. Fellowship involves companionship, and companionship must rest upon common relationship.

So the question that should occupy our attention is one of relationship. And our relationships, settled and kept right, make experience a subservient thing in all its varied phases, working hope in the heart. The life that has its source deeply hidden in the settled relationships of the will of God, will find a continual flow of living water, and will be “like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not;” while the life that has its source in the surface springs of experience must fluctuate, and frequently find itself dried up in the sand-bogs of self and worldliness. Such a one will often find a time of drought.

But you ask: Are not relationships experimental?—Indeed, they are. They belong to the realm of experimental knowledge and real consciousness; but they exist in the will, and not in the sensibilities of man. My relationship toward God has to do with the attitude of my will toward God’s will; and if this is perfect, if my will unreservedly and deeply choose his will, it will draw my entire being to share the same, my powers to do his will, and finally my feelings to rejoice in his will.

It is well to note the passing conditions of experiences of a life in Christ and a walk with God; but it is a sad thing to become so occupied with these that the relationship of the will becomes unbalanced, and no longer draws the individual, consciously and unconsciously, to choose and delight in the will of God outside of selfish interests. All of the abiding fruits of a Christian life must spring from the facts of relationship to God. O soul, distraught and troubled from a morbid habit of looking inward on the mental and spiritual conditions of self, look up, see Jesus, and believe that he has chosen you to certain ends in life, which will involve the unfolding of his will in every day; and you have but to choose his choice, and acquiesce in the actual unfailings of his purpose, as the days go. And in this attitude you will, like the flower that ever turns its opening petals toward the sun, unconsciously be taking on in character the beautiful colorings of his own personality, while the word of his truth will fructify in the unselfish soil of your heart, and yield in your life a harvest of good for others.