5 Assumptions About God And Why They Are WrongSample

Certain rituals

Assumption 2: All God wants me to do is go to church

During my childhood, I learned that good Christians went to church every Sunday. If you were too sick to attend on a given weekend, someone from your family would make sure to ask the church to pray for your illness so that no one thought you were just skipping out. Regular attendance was just one of the many expectations our church had and it became one of the many rituals I thought the Christian life demanded.

The modern Christian religion is full of these little rituals. The confusing thing is that most of these are good and healthy things. It is wonderfully beneficial to worship with other believers at least once a week. It is a good thing to study our bible daily, to pray often, and to invest in biblical community. But for many of us, we’ve replaced a vibrant living relationship with Jesus with a stale but functional relationship with the church. The truth is, God is not interested in the rituals—he’s interested in us!

God wants us to be in a relationship with him, to engage with him, to spend time with him. God wants us in church so we can worship together with other believers, so he can teach us, so we can grow closer together with him. He wants us in church because he loves us, but even when we don’t make it to church on a Sunday, God still loves us just as much!

In John 15 Jesus explained to his disciples that they were now called friends of God. In other places in scripture we are referred to as children, family of God. What is the difference between a servant and a friend or family member? A servant is expected to perform specific tasks. A friend or family member is simply expected to be.

Identity is not defined by the tasks we do for God but by the relationship we cultivate with him. It is important to attend church, read our Bible, and pray regularly. But these are not tasks God has assigned to us so we can please him. Rather, they are opportunities to engage in a living and dynamic relationship with Jesus. That’s what God wants from us—not our work, not our effort, simply who we are.