GOD’S WAY DEVOTIONAL – #2
Following Jesus From the Edges
GOD’S RELATIONSHIP
Pastor Calvin Cook
January 20, 2026
Focusing on a series of devotionals and journaling, asking the question “Am I doing, living into what God wants or what I want?” “Am I doing what others expect of me or what God is expecting of me?” “Am I listening to what God is saying or extracting the parts and words that suits and satisfies what I want.”
Today focusing on God’s desire for relationship with us, walking with His people.
“I will be your God, and you will be my people.” (Leviticus 26:12)
From the beginning days of Creation, from Genesis 1:26-31, I get the feeling, the humbling, raise the hair on the back of my neck feeling that God did this all for us in God’s desire for closeness and not distance. For God’s desire for relationship not separation. Yet from those very first moments of temptation and sinfulness by the first humans we traded that relationship for something else. The one thing God asked those first people in the Garden of Eden not to do, they were tempted, gave into temptation and sinned.
I believe that from the very beginning, God’s agenda has been relationship. Why else would we have been created. I think this morning that God didn’t have to create humanity. It is not God who has messed it up it is us. That before there were commandments, covenants, or institutions, there was a good and perfect relationship. The early chapters of Genesis reveal this relationship. God walked with those two in the Garden, not as a distant ruler, but as a present and personal God. Eden reminds us that God’s original design was closeness, not separation. Adam and Eve did the separating by sinning and we do the same today.
Throughout Scripture, this desire never changes. Even after sin fractured the relationship, God continued to pursue His people. I have been reading in my nighttime scripture about Abraham. How God was willing to walk with His people Israel through the wilderness and dwelled among them. Every step revealed something. What is being revealed to us today in this relationship God is desiring to have with us? God is present we are distant.
When God declares, “I will be your God, and you will be my people,” He is offering more than protection or provision. He is offering Himself. This is also what God did with Jesus.
In Jesus, this promise becomes even more personal. God steps into human flesh and dwells among us. The distance is closed. The invitation “Walk with Me, Follow Me” is once again spoke into our lives. Relationship with God is not reserved for just a certain group of people, the powerful, or proud. This relationship is extended to the weary, the broken, and the searching.
Today, God is still desiring to walk with you, just as God did with Adam and Eve while they were hiding from God because of their sinfulness. God is not just desiring moments of worship or prayer, but in the ordinary steps of daily life. But God is desiring to be in relationship with you in your work, your struggles, your joys, and your questions. God’s heart remains the same. He wants to be your God, and invites you to live as “the Beloved”, His beloved.
Prayer: God, thank You for desiring relationship with me. Teach me to recognize Your presence in my everyday life. Help me walk with You, not ahead of You or behind You, but faithfully with You. Amen.
Some Reflection Question for you to ponder and journal.
Where is God inviting you to slow down and walk with Him more closely today?
What is separating you and getting in the way of an un-adultered relationship with God?
Thoughts from the Edges 
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