The Danger of a One-Way Relationship with God
The Danger of a One-Way Relationship with God
I had a good friend in college who confided in me that he didn’t read the Bible. This wasn’t a confession, just a confidence.
“It’s just not really my thing, you know? I mean, I talk to God all the time. I guess you could say I’m more of a praying Christian. And like, I write my prayers out as songs to God — kind of like the Psalms. I mean, the Bible’s good and all, and I guess other people need to read it to feel close to God. Just not me.”
A professing Christian, my friend was also dyslexic, and admittedly, he thought the Bible was kind of boring.
I remember thinking, “But if you’re only talking to God, how do you ever hear from Him?”
I should have asked him — challenged him, in that way. I don’t think I ever did.
Maybe it would have made a difference in how things turned out…
You see, at some point, the “God” whom my friend was praying to disappointed him. His “God” was distant and unresponsive, and ultimately, my friend decided that that “God” wasn’t a God he could believe in anymore. So, he hung up his faith and walked away.
It broke my heart, when I found out. But it also didn’t surprise me.
Because my friend’s relationship with God was a one-way relationship. It was on his terms, not God’s. It put more credence in his thoughts and words than the thoughts and words of God (Isaiah 55:8-9).
The “God” my friend had been worshiping was a god of his own fashioning, based on his morals and ideals and feelings; and when the real God — a God he’d never taken the time to learn about or know personally — didn’t match up to his standards of what he assumed God would be, and how he believed God should be, walking away was the easiest and most natural thing in the world. Because walking away from someone is only hard when you have a real relationship with them to begin with.
The danger of a one-way relationship with God is that it’s not real.
I’ve heard all kinds of excuses from friends and family, through the years — others who profess to be followers of Jesus — reasons why reading the Bible isn’t something they prioritize. Everything from “it’s boring” to “I don’t really have time for that right now” to “there are other people who understand it better than me, so I’d rather just listen to their take-aways.”
But the God of Christianity is the God of the Bible.
If you want to know Him, you have to spend time reading the words He’s provided for us, to reveal Himself to us.
And it’s 100 percent okay if you don’t understand some of it, or even most of it. Just keep reading!
Keep listening to God and keep talking to Him, because relationships are two-way streets.
Ask God for understanding. There’s nothing more precious you could ask for, from God, than understanding. And I’m convinced, aside from Himself, there’s nothing He wants to give us more.
The Bible isn’t only important for some Christians, and not for others. It’s essential to anyone — everyone — who wants to know God for themselves.
Without the Bible, Christianity and the “God” we worship is just a religion and god of our own fashioning. And so, it shouldn’t surprise us at all when they fail.
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