How does a Christian develop a growing relationship with God?
Most messages and books encourage the faithful Christian to read their Bible, pray, serve, give, attend… and a long list of other things so that they will grow in their faith.
As a general rule, I don’t disagree with any of those habits. Most Christians would benefit with more of all of the above, myself included.
But there is a dark side. A dark side that not a lot of people talk about because the logical conclusion almost sounds heretical. If it doesn’t sound heretical it certainly sounds nonsensical.
I’ve pastored long enough to know it is real. I’ve spoken with enough people to hear a common thread.
So what’s the dark side? Here it is…
When spiritual disciplines replace a relationship with Jesus.
Reading the Bible is no longer about getting to understand the heart of God and knowing the mind of Christ, it is now just something to check off of a list. It’s a dutiful task to complete or a chore to finish.
When that happens you’ve crossed over to the dark side.
For some it has gone further and now is even a source of pride. “I read through the Bible in a Year,” …which is a great accomplishment and a great problem if they are no more generous or loving than before. You spent an entire year with all of the words of God, but yet nothing meaningful has changed.
It’s a great tragedy to read the Bible without letting it read you.
Prayer is no longer a conversation with our Father, instead the length of our prayers has now become a ruler for the depth of our relationship with God.
When that happens you’ve crossed over to the dark side.
I’m not saying reading through the Bible in a year is wrong.
I’m not saying praying for extended times is harmful.
I’m saying the danger is when spiritual disciplines become the ends instead of the means. When we replace a growing relationship with God with a growing spiritual checklist we’re headed to a dark place.
We can get an “A” on the spiritual discipline report card and yet be far away from God. (Remember the Pharisees in the New Testament.)
Spiritual disciplines are supposed to help keep us from sin, not keep us from Christ. Jesus didn’t come to give you more tasks to complete. He came to have a relationship with you.
Maybe the problem is we don’t really believe that Jesus loves us and His work on the cross was enough. Maybe we are trying really hard to get God to like us by checking off more boxes.
There is nothing you can do to make God love you MORE.
There is nothing you can do to make God love you LESS.
So when approval and achievement are off the table it’s a lot easier to work on the relationship. For some of us on a subconscious level those things are still on the table and we’ve been guilted into more tasks to win an approval we already have.
What do you do if this just described your current spiritual journey?
That’s next week’s post…
