I was saved by the blood of Jesus Christ on July 7, 2010. I remember that moment being one of peace, joy, and freedom. From that moment on, life wasn’t the same. I had a desire to live for God and I was passionate about Him. I focused on my spiritual growth and doing His work. I can honestly say that I was happy with my life as a Christian, but it never felt particularly how I thought it should feel. I found prayer difficult, hated the awkwardness of worship, and read my Bible out of routine. I knew that dreading one-on-one time with God wasn’t good, but as hard as I tried to change that, it was always a chore.

Sin can be defined as separation from God. Every time I would fall into an old, sinful habit I felt as if I didn’t have God anymore. I worked so hard to get Him to come back around. I put in effort so that I could get effort out of Him.

Let’s not forget about comparison either. I used to get jealous of other people during worship. Why was it that this person was on the ground crying and I couldn’t get the emotion I needed to raise my hands? I looked around at these people who were “on fire for Christ” and got jealous that they had something I didn’t.

I had been looking at Christ wrong the entire time.

Relationship vs. religion is a huge topic for younger Christians. When I first heard this, I was all about the movement. I had some bad experiences with people in the Baptist church and decided I was a Christian and nothing else. It was all about my relationship and not my label. I still live by this take on the saying, but it means more than that.

Look at relationship and religion as mindsets. Religion tells us we must read our Bible every day, twice a day. Pray when you wake up. Pray before you go to sleep. Don’t sin. Put in hours and you’ll get something out of it. Raise your hands because it’s what the Bible tells us to do during worship. Attend church every Sunday and Wednesday. The list goes on and on.

Don’t get me wrong. All these things are good. They’re great actually, but it’s our intention behind them that creates problems. Religion is a set of laws. Christianity isn’t about following rules. Jesus didn’t say follow these rules. He said “follow me.”

So, let’s talk about relationship. God is relational. He would rather you fall in love with Him than follow the rules perfectly. The best part is that when you fall in love with Him, you look forward to reading your Bible and raising your hands becomes a way to show Him (not anyone else in the room) that you are reaching out and surrendering everything else. When we put in the work before loving our God, we are setting ourselves up for failure. When we fall in love, the work isn’t work at all.

So, how do you fall in love with God? It’s simple. You ask Him to show you who He is and who you are in Him. Two people fall in love by getting to know more about each other. It works the same way with God.

Deuteronomy 7:6-10 tells a lot about God’s character in just five verses. Just in this passage, He shows us that He loves the minority just as much as the majority. He rescues people who are in desperate times, He has complete authority, He is faithful to His children, and He loves us deeply. That’s not all either. The Bible is full of things that our small minds can’t even comprehend about God’s character.

Who are you in relation to God? You’re perfect. Jefferson Bethke made a video that perfectly describes this. He gives a metaphor that Jesus is the plane and we are the passenger. When the plane is flying, we are too. What is true of Jesus becomes true of us. Jesus is perfect, therefore we are too. We cannot accomplish perfection by any amount of work. Instead Jesus accomplishes this for us. So, stop calling yourself a sinner when you’re actually perfect.

Not only are you perfect, you are loved. People work so hard to earn God’s love because they don’t feel worthy of it. They feel as if their list of sins is too long, so they try to work it all off. That is far from the truth. Romans 8:38-39 proves that nothing is powerful enough to separate us from the love of God revealed by Jesus. So, no matter whether you are brought to tears during worship or just aren’t feeling it, you are still loved by God. That doesn’t change.

Still feeling guilty of some past or current sin? 2 Corinthians 3:17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. There is freedom from guilt, worry, anger, loneliness, depression, anxiety, sin, and the list goes on. There is no possible way for dark and light to exist in the same room. If you light a candle in a dark room, everything is lit. The light consumes every inch of the room. When you ask the Holy Spirit to come, there is freedom from the darkness.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are real. Treat them that way. Try praying out loud to God when you are all alone. Tell Him all about your day. He already knows how it went, but He just wants to be with you. He’s in your passenger seat. He’s eating breakfast in the chair next to you. He’s dancing with you to the newest Lecrae album. Acknowledge His presence and spend time with Him.

Psalms 46:10. God wants us to be still sometimes. Rest in Him. Lay down, close your eyes, and rest in the fact that you are His and He is yours. He rests in the same thing.