Personal

The word "Personal" is one of those words filled with meaning and power. Here are few of my favorite uses of this great word.

"Don’t take it personally"
"I need my personal space"
"This is too personal to talk about with just anyone"
"You are getting too personal"
"Personally, I…"
"My personal opinion is…"

I think the power of the word personal is to focus the listener on the differing levels of intimacy we allow others to have with us. When the word personal is used in conversation, a subject may be touched or left alone. We use the word personal to create what we consider to be the proper boundaries between ourselves and others.

When a discussion is underway between two people, the word "personal" is a signal to reevaluate boundaries. If you have ever gone into a teenager's room and opened their personal, secret drawer you have properly heard the words, "Hey, that's personal!" It is a great word when there is nothing dangerous being hidden in the drawer.

It has come as a surprise to me that every subject about me is personal with God. That is, everything I do and everything that happens to me is within God’s personal space and is very personal to God. I must not try to tell God He is in my personal space and opening my personal drawer when He comes into my "room". I am in His personal space all the time. He was here first.

Paul’s statement in Acts 17: 26-28 clarifies the Divine personal space in relation to all of us:

"And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.'"

We all live at all times in God’s personal space. With God everything about us is personal.

Just how personal are we supposed to be with God? Go back and read the words again — "seek the Lord", "grope for Him and find Him". Very personal words, aren’t they?

Do you have a personal relationship with God? You should, you live in His personal space all the time. If you say religion is too personal a subject for you, that might keep other religious types out of the discussion, but that use of personal won’t keep God out of the discussion.

With Him everything about all of us is very personal. You would be wise to start talking with Him today. It is personal just between the two of you.