Fall.In.Love.With.Jesus.

I have this sign in my bathroom. Its one of the first things I see every morning. It simply says:

 “Fall in love with Jesus.”

That’s all.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I begin every morning in deep spiritual prayer, or by cracking my Bible open and reading 5 chapters. I don’t start my day by memorizing an assigned verse or listening to church hymns. To be honest, some mornings I’m lucky if I manage to remember to brush my teeth before walking out the door. Gross.

Over the past year I have been astonished to see many around me, though well intentioned, replace a relationship with God with religious activity concerning God. Our religious activity is no indication as to whether we actually know God or not. In fact, in some cases, the zealousness and quantity of one’s religious activity may be a pretty good indication that he does not know God at all, but wants the rest of us, and probably God as well, to think he does. The pews of churches are filled every Sunday with people worshipping a God they don’t even know.

The body of Christ is filled with people who are pros at looking good. I know, because I used to be there. I could say the right little thing at the right little time. I went to church. I read my Bible. I even prayed for people. But something drastic was missing…I didn’t KNOW the God I was claiming to worship. I made little commitment to understanding my faith. I was engaged in religious activity instead of knowing and understanding the heart of Jesus. Ultimately, it left me tired, ran down and empty. My relationship with Christ was like eating a raisin cookie, when I was craving chocolate chip. I was left unsatisfied.

I know I am not the only person who has ever felt this way. In fact, Paul warns the Pharisees against this same thing all throughout the New Testament. The Pharisees thought they could work hard enough to impress God enough to persuade him to grant them grace and favor. The more they worked publicly, the emptier they became internally. Instead of being filled on the inside, they only cared about looking good on the outside. The Pharisees, who memorized books of the Bible and should have been the first people to recognize the Messiah, became some of the first to condemn him. Their works had left them deeply unsatisfied.

Just like the Pharisees, it’s easy to measure proximity to God, by the sum of spiritual activity. The more we do, the easier it becomes to turn into our own little mini-god. We can become far more impressed with ourselves, than with the one who created us. Arrogance and self-deception then blind us to our need for God. I see so many people believing that just acting like it, is almost as good as being it. It has become far more important to look like you should than it is to be who you should be. But the longer we substitute spiritual activity for spiritual depth, the more we become merely a shell of who we might have been.

So dear Christian, stop the masquerade. It’s uncalled for. Be honest with yourself about your own relationship with God and be totally liberated KNOWING that God’s grace means you don’t have to try so hard.

Live each day to simply “Fall in love with Jesus” and stop working so hard. Throw that raisin cookie away and take part in the sweetest, most fulfilling relationship you will ever taste.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” 

Psalm 34:8