Developing a Closer Relationship with God Takes More Than Going to Church
My love affair with God is growing and growing. Although my new love for God started in church almost 20 years ago, it wasn’t until God separated me unto himself and took me through a desert experience that I began not to just know of God, but truly experience Him on a personal level.
As new or immature believers in Christ, our walk is generally characterized by what we do for God. Although the gift of salvation is free, it’s hard for our natural minds to comprehend that we can get something for nothing. Our church leaders also weight us down with a litany of what good Christians do. Good Christians never miss a Sunday Service, attend weekly bible study, volunteer in several ministries, read their Bibles everyday, and the list goes on. As a result, when we fail to meet these standards, guilty feelings surface and fear sets in. We may even question whether we are saved.
The irony is that going to church doesn’t necessarily constitute a relationship with God just as not going to church suggests a lack of one. The first time I stopped going to church I was guilt-ridden. I must be in a back-slidden condition I ponderedt, although my heart was just as devoted to God as ever. Scriptures like, “do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together,” surely meant I was on my way to hell. Yet at that time in my life going to church left me feeling empty. It was just a weekly ritual, a habit that I had been doing for years and I was tired of putting myself through its misery.
