Exchanging Religious Duty for Friendship With Jesus

There are many concepts and ideas of who Jesus is and what He is like. Over the years, I have grown to realize the lies in my own heart about God and His nature towards us. For many, Jesus is anything but a fresh of breath air. With so many rules and regulations to follow, they see Christianity as controlling and quite boring. I understand why. I was once one that loved to put all of those rules on others. Without an understanding of what God is truly like, Christianity is just that. One can only try and obey all the rules for so long until either giving up or giving in secretly. The fact is, God wants to walk with us in life as a friend. Spiritual maturity is when you grow to realize that even in your weakness He loves and adores you. No matter how hard we try, we can’t follow all the rules. Those who think they are following the rules, are the maddest and meanest people of all! Thank God He delivered me from this kind of mentality. It’s amazing what a little brokenness can accomplish in our lives! Brokenness is such a gift from God!

When I was younger, I would approach God with a duty mentality. I was coming to Him out of duty because I didn’t want to get in trouble, so to speak. This was my Christian duty, therefore I better stick to it. Unfortunately, this resulted in a very legalistic approach to God that caused me to judge and look down on others who didn’t have the totally awesome prayer life that I had (not so much). I found my journal from back then and realized how much the Lord has changed me from that little religious girl I was back then! I’m still learning a lot about how He is, but I have changed a lot!

I did not realize that as I matured in the Lord (not saying I’m mature, but I have grown in truth) I would find that my time with the Lord would change from duty to pure enjoyment. I found that I actually liked spending time with Him because I began to experience the pleasures of His heart for me. I began to realize how much He really liked me and sometimes He just wanted me to sit with Him so He could whisper again what He felt about me. It was a sweet season of my heart being awakened to what God was like. It was a time of healing and a new understanding of who I was to God began to gain root in my heart. My heart before God was no longer entangled with the bondage of duty and not wanting to disappoint Him. Instead, the Lord Himself was showing me who He truly was and what He thought about me. This was a new concept for me. I simply found that when I was with Him, I felt adored, loved, accepted, and cherished. Not that I wasn’t loved well by others, but I had never felt anything like this before. It was new to me, and if this was who God really was, I wanted more. If He can take the time to change a simple person like myself, I know the invitation stands for anyone. I’m so normal and plain Jane, it’s ridiculous. I still have so much to work on, but if I can say one thing He has changed in me in the last 13 years, I would say it’s the way I view God and how He perceives me. This kind of perception has everything to do with how we live our lives with God. It has everything to do with how we will respond when we sin – whether or not we will run to Him or away. If we know we are loved even in our weakness, we will always run to Him after sinning (not out of rebellion, but sincere people with weak hearts). It won’t happen over night and we can’t do it by ourselves. He will do a work in our hearts – a work of love that will break down all the false ideas we have about Jesus. He is incredible, folks!

Song of Solomon 2:3 “I sat down in His shade with great delight.” There is a shade made available for us. For those who are weary and tired of carrying the load of life, there is a shade we can sit in. It is the shade of the Lord. It’s a place of rest and a place of pure enjoyment. The Lord is refreshing. I have a few people in my life that after I spend time with them, I leave feeling refreshed. Jesus is refreshing. Unlike so many that think He is one who wants to put religious duty on us and weigh us down with rules, He is just the opposite. He wants to take our heavy loads and share His heart with us. This shade is for anyone, not just for a few. It is for people who struggle and people who don’t measure up. It is for the one who has made a lot of mistakes and the one who has been given up on. When we know the pleasures in His heart for us, the areas of insecurity, rejection, paranoia, and self-criticism are shattered. Whenever I get tired of myself (I am my worst enemy), I go and sit in His shade for awhile. I always leave refreshed, strengthened, and ready for what’s next. And I feel much lighter as He always takes the things that I’m worried and fearful about and replaces them with His peace. What a friend we have in Jesus!