Blog

by Nathan Buck

I really hate those moments when I find myself giving into a bad habit, or drifting away from good habits, especially when it comes to my health. It is hard work to maintain our physical health and discipline ourselves to regularly eat healthy and exercise. But the cost of not doing it can be downright deadly.

Spiritually, we have the same challenge. Our faith in God is a relationship. He is not a mystical vending machine, or an impersonal magical force that we manipulate by our devotion. God is a person - 3 persons to be exact, completely in unity and undividable - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And our relationship to God takes the same discipline as any other relationship in order to be healthy.

What do I mean by that? Any relationship relies on communication, trust, and faithfulness, just to name a few essentials. When we break any of those, the relationship suffers. There are many reasons why we may break relationship. The cost is always very high and the benefit is usually very low, or ultimately negative.

Read Judges 10:6-9. This passage starts by announcing that after a season of good relationship with God, Israel “once again did evil, in the Lord's sight.” Sadly, this phrase reoccurs in the Bible many times. And, if we are honest, it reoccurs in our own lives too.

Why did Israel do it? They were either impatient or enticed to believe that other gods from other cultures and religions would meet their needs. Instead of staying faithful to God, they chose to join in the worship practices of other cultures. They committed adultery, unfaithfulness, and betrayal.

Maybe they were tired of waiting on God to provide and found religious practices that felt like they had some control over their future. Maybe they thought worshipping more gods was “covering all their bases.” Regardless of the reason, they broke relationship with God almighty, and gave themselves to lesser gods and lesser ambitions.

In light of our current situation as a nation, and reflecting on the many things we feel are important in our culture, I want to invite you to consider how you might be breaking relationship with God. Maybe it is a social agenda you have, seeking justice for others but not seeking it God's way? Maybe it is a moral issue, but not engaging the culture the way God has asked you to? Maybe it is just you own success and well-being, and you've started taking it for yourself however you can, instead of seeking God's best for you? Maybe you are just covering all your bases and worshipping everything, because you aren't quite sure what to believe? Whatever your place of relational difficulty with God is, I invite you to identify it, and then ask Him to show you what He desires in relationship with you.

Take time to read the Bible and understand what a relationship with Him looks like. Ask God to show you why other gods and religions are not worth your time. And consider that there may be a huge down side to having a “hot-n-cold” relationship with God. We will take a look at what Israel learned next week.

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