Religion vs. Relationship

Religion vs. Relationship

Religion has become a term that refers to the use of tradition and rituals to become “right with God.” Most rituals that Christians do or perform didn’t start out as just rituals, but had deep meaning and symbolism behind them. They can range from taking holy communion, to going to church, to even praying before your meals. If you don’t understand the reason why we do certain things and really give it your all to glorify God, then it is just a ritual with no meaning behind it. 

Jesus speaks about this problem when he speaks in Matthew 7:23-25: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Jesus is not speaking to nonbelievers, but BELIEVERS. These are Christians, just like you and I! Essentially, he is saying that even though they performed miracles and prophesied in Jesus’s name, it was only because his name had power. They had no RELATIONSHIP with God. Our modern equivalent is if we think that we are good enough because we go to church every Sunday (and attend Sunday School), if we think that we should be admitted to heaven because we evangelized to people a whole bunch, or even if we are a pastor of a church with over 5,000 members. Jesus said it is worth nothing if we have no RELATIONSHIP with God. 

The Greek word “ginosko” and can mean to understand by examination. They don’t truly KNOW God. They think they have an understanding of who he is, but they are really just desiring to get the benefits (speaking prophecies and doing miracles) of God. 

We, as Christians, sometimes do this. Ever remember praying really, really hard right before an exam so God can bless us  when normally we don’t pray as hard? Do you remember going to church on Sunday morning, because we know we went to the club the night before as if church cancels out our behavior? Not that there is anything wrong with going to church or with praying really hard, but make sure you do things because of your relationship with God, not because you feel that you HAVE TO to “get back right”. 

Jesus says in John 14:15: If you love me, keep my commands. So your life is a direct reflection of your relationship with God. So I just want to encourage us to do a couple of simple things

1.Desire and pursue a real and genuine relationship with God. How? Start by praying to him. Praying is simply talking to him. Communicate to him how you are feeling, tell him about your day. Something we forget that God is a real PERSON! Even more than that, he is our FATHER! He wants to hear everything that we experience and that we are going through, or just how much we love him. Be honest with him! Then, after you are done talking to Him and listen. Like I said, God is a PERSON! He talks ALL THE TIME!! His words have a lot more power than you think! We sometimes just talk all the time and don’t bother to listen to his responses to our prayers. Not sure if God is talking to you? Is what God said lining up with the Bible? If so, it’s God. If not.... It’s not God. Point blank period. The more you get into the word and allow the Holy Spirit to be in your life, the easier it will be to decipher God’s voice. One thing that I will always remember that one of my sisters told me is,“Usually the first voice you hear is God. Then yourself. Then the enemy. So the convo will go like this: God will speak to you. You will say to yourself, ‘Was that me talking to myself?’ Then the enemy will say, ‘Yeah, girl, you’re crazy, talking to yourself all the time...” Be VERY aware that the enemy doesn’t want you to have a relationship with God. He will CONFUSE you. Ask God to protect your mind against this confusion. 

2. Live your life to the glory of the Lord!! Live in such a way that your life shows that you have a relationship with God. As Christians,we shouldn’t look like the world! There should be something seriously different about our lives as Christians!. If you find that you are having trouble changing... You aren’t supposed to “change yourself.” You can’t. If that was the case, then Jesus wouldn’t have to come and die for us. ALLOW God to change you. Allow him to change your desires, your speech, your music, your ENTIRE LIFE. That is what we did when we accepted Christ as your savior: allowed him to come in and CHANGE US. 

I love all of you dearly and everything that I have said in this study is from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. I was not always living like this. I wasn’t on fire for God as I am now. Next week, (on Monday sharp! Again, sorry) I will tell my personal testimony about how God has changed me from being lukewarm to the way I am now. Praise God! 

- Your A4C Sister,

Lise