Relationship vs Religion

Let's talk about relationship. Every single person can say they love. Every christian specifically is called to love in Matthew 22:37-40 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” So what exactly does this mean, it means exactly what my other post talked about, it means to be mindful, connecting more deeply to those that exist in our life, rather than living for ourselves and what makes us happy. It means to be approachable, allowing for people to come to us when they are in need. It means having grace, just like the grace that God has for others we must be less judgemental towards them because if we receive God's grace without having the ability to provide that for others then we are hypocrites. It means to be bold, in christ we have power, and we should be fearless knowing that we have Him by our side. Lastly, it means to be self-giving. We should be invested in others and their lives and the well-being of our community because we are called to preach the gospel to all nations. Our life itself should be its own testimony of the goodness of God. 

That is what a real relationship is. Truly love someone without just saying it, love is a verb. So, relationship is the same type of thing. We come to God everyday and update Him like we would a friend, He truly just wants to know how we feel and go through our life with us, beside us. Religion isn't all bad in itself it teaches us what the law is and who it is that we follow. It also shows us many different things that are better for us not to live by and to live by. But the important thing for us is to look at if we have had our own personal experiences with Christ and have encountered Him on our own. We ourselves have tasted and seen His goodness and know for 100% that there is no other person we would rather be serving than our Lord and Savior. Religion is something that can actually be detrimental just because people start living doing works and living just following laws but they never actually encounter Jesus. These things are where religion ruins some people because people don't actually know the person of Jesus and they are living to serve what their churches say. Then the world knows Christians by those who are very religion focused and don't know us by those who truly love our Lord, because Jesus is your friend, and He doesn't hate you He truly loves you no matter who you are. But, there is a line. When you are in a relationship your weaknesses are sometimes pointed out and the things that aren't the best for you are brought to light. That is what Jesus does, He molds us from the person we thought we wanted to be to the person we are meant to be; however, that depends on how much we listen to Him and depend on His guidance. 

One thing to leave today with is understanding, head knowledge is good and that is received by dwelling in His word and understanding what you are reading. But, a true relationship with God is when you truly set time apart to spend time with Him, and He gets to know you. Yes, He knows all of us, but the best way to build a relationship is to spend time together in harmony. 

All in all, its not your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, or even church that is going to save you. It is your relationship with Christ and the fruits that you have bore from that relationship in your time on this earth. We are all good hearers of the word, but are we do-ers? 

 

There is a beautiful podcast called the Abide podcast and their second episode goes into great teaching about this topic. Podcast. Its also even better when there are many different episodes included in this podcast because you can look through many different topics that you need help with. 

This uplifting song speaks just how much JESUS is present through every storm. But it takes trust in a relationship for us to truly believe that He will be king over every flood.