What’s More Important to God … Rules or a Relationship?

For the past several years I have heard the phrase, “God wants to have a personal relationship with you” stated throughout several churches, conferences, and even from own mouth.  There is power in this statement however, for several people the power is never fully understood.  I have known many people who have been hurt by the church or other Christians because when they noticed something was missing in their lives and decided to explore if Christianity was the path for them they were met with people saying, “Here’s a bunch of rules.  Do the best you can.  And if you do well, God will accept you.”  Needless to say, shortly after this statement is made many of them turn away, never to return to any church or God again.

But here’s the thing, God never said anything like that.  He never implied, inferred, modeled or illustrated that.  In fact, He did the exact opposite.  Relationship always precedes rules with God.  And the biggest thing to God came before the Ten Commandments, back when the Israelites were in Egypt.  It was at that point that God initiated the relationship by simply asking the question, “Will you trust Me?”

For me I began to understand this at an overnighter when I was fourteen years old.  I listened to a pastor preach his heart out talking about God desiring a relationship with me, which was something that I had never really understood even though I had spent the previous twelve years in church weekly.  You see our family went to church every week, because it was the right thing to do not because we had a personal relationship with God.  For years, I was given the rules to be a “good person” by the church and tried to live in them with the understanding that my performance would gain God’s approval.  However, as I sat on that gym floor around 2:00 am I realized the depths of God’s love wasn’t rooted in a set of rules but solely in the fact that God loves me!  On that night I realized, God gives us rules, laws, and commandments because He loves us, not as a way for us to prove something to Him.  God has given us laws, rules, and commandments because we are already in, not as a means of getting in.

Today, I would like to leave you with a question to consider about your relationship with God and to discuss with your students.  “Based on your experience what do you think are some of God’s rules?”  As you wrestle with this question I challenge you to think about where your personal relationship with God is and what steps are you taking to further yourself on the journey.  Our story with God starting over 3,500 years ago when Moses had a conversation with God on the side of a mountain, in which God asked Moses one simple question, “Will you trust Me?”  We are given that same opportunity today as “Relationship always precedes rules with God.”