Relationship vs Religion

All my life I considered myself a Christian, so why is it that I only really started having a relationship with God in the last year. I grew up in a house where we use to go to church and Sunday school on a regular basis. So why is it that all these years I felt like I got nothing from my religion. I stopped reading my Bible, because I simply got nothing from it. It just did not make much sense to me. I stop going to church, because the praise and worship part felt more like a funeral and the message just did not catch my attention.

I got the answer, when I started going to a, if you like, more liberated church. I could say I was lucky, (church hopping isn’t always a good thing, albeit sometimes necessary) but then I don’t believe in luck anymore, but in divine intervention. I found out that I was practising a religion, instead of having a relationship with God. Practising a religion will kill your soul.

So how do I have a relationship with God?

1.      You have to get to know the Word of God. A good place to start is to find out about the foundations of the Bible. Christianity is under attack from other religions, in our school, our government, ectr. If you want to build a solid relationship with God, your foundations must be right. We have to know what the Word of God is all about and we have to know who the enemy is. Finding out about the foundations of the Bible will help you understand the Bible better. Proverbs and the Books of Matthew – John is a good place to start reading the Bible.

2.      You also have to make the choice to give your life to God. If you except Jesus as your personal Saviour and belief that He died and was resurrected, you will inherit God’s Kingdom.

3.      You have to repent/ confess all your sins and ask for forgiveness. The Bible says” the truth will set you free”. It’s no use trying to hide what can’t be hidden from God. Once you have confessed, you have to make a 180 degrees U-turn. Walk away from your sins! Trust me satan does not like losing you and he will do everything in his power to get you back. Expect some rough times ahead.

4.      Then you have to get baptised, the sooner the better. Getting baptised is a public acknowledgement of your acceptance of God as your personal Saviour. A former Satanist whose job it was to win children for satan, once said that they just could not get to the children that were baptised. It gives you more protection from the fiery arrows of darkness.

5.      You have to start reading and obeying the Word of God. You have to acknowledge God as the ONLY King in your life. Reading the Bible will discipline and teach you in situations, where you are not living according to the Word of God. No person can become a mature Christian without having some work done to them by God. It is not always easy and sometimes it is downright miserable, but therein lays the test. If you can persevere when things are downright miserable, learning to put your faith in God despite the reality of the moment, you will be victorious in the end. At the end of the day you want to become a better person, with better and stronger values and that is what trials do for you. It changes you and makes you a more mature Christian.  

6.      Getting to know the Bible teaches you about God, who and what He is. It teaches you about Jesus and His relationship to God. I know, we all know He is the Son of God, but that is not all His is. What about the Holy Spirit? I use to think The Holy Spirit was just there to make up the 3 in 1 personalities of God. Boy was I wrong. Without the Holy Spirit we cannot have a relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is our Communicator with God, our Conscience, our Helper, and our Teacher.

7.      You have to belong to a church family/cell group. The church should become your  family. Family members protect and help each other and that is what your church family do for. Satan will try and isolate you, because then you become vulnerable. There is safety in numbers and when you are a young Christian you need as many older Christians around you as you can get. Remember there is a spiritual war going on and whether you are aware of it or not, you are smack bang in the middle of it. You better decide on which side you want to be.

In short you have to start with the basics. The Bible talks about building your house on sand or on rock. Reading the Bible teaches you what exactly that Rock is. Also knowing the Bible keeps you on the right track, you can only have a meaningful relationship with God if you obey Him. Remember sin will widen the gap between you and God and even if you are saved, it will make it difficult to hear God. If you don’t hear God, you cannot let Him guide you and it is then that you start taking matters into your own hands and run the risk of derailing yourself. Once you allow God to have the final say in your life, it becomes very easy to stay on the right track. It’s like having a relationship with your best friend. It’s FUN and EXCITING, except that God gives so much more.

It’s all about trust, but in God’s case you never get disappointed. Obviously if you act like a spoiled brat and want something that’s not in line with God’s Word, you will be disappointed. Your relationship with God becomes better the more you learn to give over to God and trust that He knows best. Sometimes it can look like He doesn’t care about where you are in your life, but God doesn’t allow anyone to push Him. His time is always the best time. A friend said that God is a gentleman, He never forces you to do anything. For me it was difficult in the beginning to trust and completely let go, but the more I did, the more I realised that I am safe in God’s Hands and that He will always let things work out for the best.

Just like you need to spend time with your best friend, being friends with God also require time, time to talk to Him, to get to know Him and most important to listen to Him. I’m still learning to be quiet and listen, but the more quiet time I spend with God, the better I can hear him and that to me is one of the best things about having a relationship with God, because in hearing Him, God had become a reality to me. I have no doubt anymore that I believe in a God that is alive and that wants to communicate with me and actually does communicate with me.

For those of you who had been kicked in the stomach by life, who have lost your faith in people and life in general, who have no hope left in you, do yourself the favour and just once do something really life changing for yourself. One more time take the risk and put your trust in God. Go speak to someone that really have a relationship with God and trust me you will know when someone has a true relationship with God, because these people are different. They shine! Open the door to your heart when God comes knocking and you will never in your life be without hope again. Only when you get to know the Living God will your life become truly worth living. After all you were made for God by God. Only when you fulfil God’s purpose for you in life, will you experience true peace and joy.

Just to clarify matters, when you practise a religion, you base salvation on deeds and obeying the Law of Moses. It is impossible for us to be saved by doing good deeds and obeying the Ten Commandments. That is why God gave us the Law of Christ. Only through Christ can we have eternal life and enter the gates of Heaven.