"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." ~ Galatians 5:1
Recently, my family and I have been reading The Shack by William P. Young. It’s a story about a man dealing with a bout of depression as a result of his youngest child being abducted and murder by a serial killer. The man then receives an anonymous invitation from an unknown source to return to the scene of the crime, where he experiences a life-changing encounter with God.
I won’t give away the whole story, but I do want to address what I consider the book’s primary and most powerful point – and that is the difference between religion and relationship.
As Christians, many of us live our lives in religion. We feel a duty or obligation to go to church every week, to pray before we eat and go to bed, to read our Bible every night, to attend Bible study on a weekly basis. And all that stuff is good.
But without relationship, it means nothing. It certainly won’t bring you salvation or freedom. Rather, religion without relationship will bind you. It’ll handcuff you to laws and rituals and not allow you to experience all that God has to offer.
See, God doesn’t want our allegiance based out of fear or obligation. He wants a relationship based in love and freedom.
It’s only when we focus more on relationship and less on religion that we will truly experience God’s love for us in its fullness.
If you haven’t read The Shack yet, I encourage you to do so. It’ll change your life.
God bless,
J.W.
