If someone would ask you how your relationship with God is going, what would you say?

I used to respond to people, or even myself when I’d question my faith, that I have a strong relationship with Him. I mean, I pray all day, and I don’t commit huge sins, so everything’s going great! That’s enough, right?

I used to think I had it all together; that I was a good Christian. But what does it even mean to be a good Christian? Is there a scale? A rating? We label ourselves good Christians, yet we don’t even know what that even entails.

Personally, my opinion has changed on this. I don’t believe there is anything as a good Christian. You either believe in God, and follow Him, or you don’t. There’s no gray area.

And being a Christian doesn’t mean that your relationship is perfect. I’m slowly realizing that. Being a Christian is believing in God with all your heart, and following Him, but your relationship is your daily walk with Him.

If you had asked me a week ago, my reasoning for having a great relationship with God would be because I pray often. I go to church twice a week, teach a Wednesday night and Sunday school class. That was the basis of my relationship.

Now, I’m realizing that those things aren’t going to get me anywhere.

If you were to ask a stranger for a quarter, does that make you friends? No. You can ask this same person for a quarter every single day, for months, even years, but that doesn’t make you both friends. Even if you attended the same school as this person, that wouldn’t mean you had any sort of relationship with him or her.

There’s no difference with God. You can pray and ask God for something every single day, but that doesn’t mean you have a relationship with Him. You can go to Church multiple times a week, and just because God is present, doesn’t mean anything.

Your relationship with God is so much more than attendance and requests. God doesn’t just want you to show up someplace where you feel required to be because of the Christian label, or asking for things just because He’s the only one who can do these things, but He wants you to come to Him because of who He is. He’s not a genie who can grant you wishes.

We pray to God, asking for things, yet we don’t even try to have a relationship with Him. We think that doing the simplest things is good enough.

I have multiple devotionals, yet I have never completed one. I go for a week or so, and then I give up. It becomes too time consuming.

Why isn’t God worth the five minutes it would take to read the Bible, or a devotional? All it takes is going to bed a few minutes late, or waking up a few minutes early, or even just reading it at a random point during the day. Take a few minutes off of social media, or don’t text your friend back right away, just long enough to fit God into your time. We make time to hang out with our friends, or to have an hour long phone conversation, yet spending a few minutes to quietly read your Bible and focus on your relationship isn’t worth it.

God is worth your time. Your relationship with Him is worth the effort. Doing a bare minimum isn’t enough. It might seem like it, but eventually, God is going to ask you why. Like He has recently with me. I kept praying and praying for something, and God asked me, “Why do you have time for that, yet you don’t have time for me?”.

That’s when I realized my relationship was at risk. It was barely a relationship. It was just a routine, and requests.

I challenge you to look at your own relationship. How would you describe it? If you’re like me, maybe it’s time to make a change. I am. From today on, I am making time for God. Doing the bare minimum isn’t going to be enough, not anymore.

Yours Truly,

Brittany Parker

SteppingOnDandelions.com