Experiencing a real relationship with God

When people think of religion, they usually think of rules, regulations, and obligations.  This is why “religion” is one of my most hated words.  It gives people that weird feeling because they think that if you’re religious, then you probably are too good for me.  Religion also puts us in bondage.  I’ll never understand the differences between Church of Christ, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, and any other types of Christian denominations.   I feel like they focus more on how each church is different, rather than focusing that we all believe the same thing.  Jesus is the Son of God, He died for our sins, and He rose from the dead.   We are all not just Christians, but we are Christ followers. 

Jesus didn’t die a horrible death to give us bondage.  He died to set us free.  He died, so that we could have an intimate relationship with God.   He didn’t die just to give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we’re forced to follow.  I believe that He wants us to follow certain guidelines, but His purpose is only to protect us from the consequences of sin. 

God is like a parent when it comes to sin.  When parents tell their children not to play in the street, it’s not because they don’t want them to have fun.  It’s simply because the parents don’t want to see their child get hurt.  Sin is the exact same way.  God only tells us not to do something because He loves us so much, and doesn’t want us to get hurt. 

When experiencing a real relationship with God through Christ, life gets pretty exciting.  He stirs up a passion inside of us to love people, and we realize that we don’t have to struggle to do the things that He calls us to do.  It just happens naturally. 

God wants everybody to know that He is not mad at us.  God loves you.  God loves me. He loved us yesterday.  He loves us today, and He will love us forever.  Now, He may not like everything that we do, but He will never stop loving us. 

God isn’t impressed by our works.  He only cares about our heart.  When our heart is right with God, then we automatically want and desire to do good things.  Doing good things isn’t so that God will love us more; it’s because He wants us to receive the joy and blessings that come along with doing good things. 

All God has ever wanted to hear from us is, “I love You, Lord.  Thank You for everything You’ve done in my life.  I want to do what’s right, so I desire for You to keep teaching me. I want to grow.”   

God wants us to learn how to receive His mercy.  Hebrews 4: 13-16 says that nothing in all creation is hidden from God.  Everything is exposed before His eyes, and we are accountable for our actions.  Jesus understands our weaknesses because he faced all of the same trials and tribulations that we have faced, yet he never sinned.   If we believe in Jesus, then our sins will be washed white as snow, and we will receive God’s mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.     

When becoming a Christ follower, God begins to change us into a brand new creation.  However, we shouldn’t make up religious rules to live by, nor should we do whatever we want because we know we’re going to heaven when we die.  Christianity is about living a vibrant, exciting life in Christ.  It goes hand in hand with developing a personal relationship with Him.  Jesus wants us to be in love with Him.

We need to realize what really matters.  It doesn’t matter what clothes we wear because God doesn’t anoint polyester over denim. I mean, we should want to look nice, but we shouldn’t be so focused on our outward appearance, and lose sight of our main goal, which is developing a close, personal relationship with God. 

 It doesn’t matter if we go to church every single week if we don’t practice what we’ve learned.  We can’t afford to be Sunday Warriors and Monday Whiners.  We could sit our butts flat in church, and it won’t save us. Church is a place of growing.  If we refuse to grow in Christ, and be a witness for Him, then we’re wasting our time.  If we go to church and sing "I Surrendering All", but never actually surrender all; then again, we’re wasting our time.   Matthew 16:25 says that if we try to live our lives according to our will, then we will lose it.    However, if we commit our lives to Christ, our lives will be saved.   

Matthew 16:26 changed my life.  “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul?”  We can’t afford to follow a lost and broken world because it seems natural to us.  It’s time to be weird in a God way. 

It’s time to surrender all, and develop a real relationship with God.  God wants to be involved in everything we do, and in every decision we make.  He wants us to have a fellowship with Him, which means communicating with Him throughout our day, just like we communicate with our friends and family every day.

Knowing that God loves us, and He knows that we love Him; we will become grateful for everything that He has done, and what He is doing in our lives.   It’s time to throw religion out the window, and experience all God has for us in this life by developing a real relationship.