Relationship

This summer I worked as a cabin leader at camp Mini-Yo-We, a Christian camp in Huntsville, Ontario. Halfway through the summer I received a letter from a girl at Girls camp... How would my relationship with this girl have developed if I had:

1...thought "oh that's nice, I'l carry the letter with me everywhere", but never actually read the letter = the relationship would have been simply a memento, something I would show off, but ultimately it would be meaningless.  

2....read the letter, but never talk to this girl, or reply in any way = the relationship would be based on information, and however hard I try to  be in love with this girl-without interaction, it would be impossible.

How often is our faith simply an add-on to our lives? a memento, a part of our facebook information page?

Or how often are we stuck trying to love God because we know it's the right thing to do? This was the trap I found myself in, a meaningless faith- trying my best to truly love God- only to fail repeatedly. Eventually I gave up, this "faith" was leaving me with a constant feeling of failure, in no way did I get any "living water"/never thirsting sensation. I now believe whole heartedly that my relationship had been purely option number 2, without interaction, meaningless. I had read the letter (The bible), I had read it a lot, and developed a lopsided relationship with Christ. Going back to the start, the only way I could have developed a strong relationship with that girl, would have been to read the letter, but also to talk to her, to listen to her. Likewise, the only way for me to build a strong relationship with Christ, is through talking with him in prayer, along with reading his letter, the bible. 

My prayers became more and more candid, more and more personal over the course of the summer. I feel like church can give us this subconscious impression that prayers should be ritualistic and impersonal, I also feel like when Christianity is an add-on in our lives, that prayer becomes nothing more then a "help-line" where we ask God to fix "our" lives.

Romans 8, 31-32
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

God is the creator of the whole Universe, of everything. He is the Being that Satan needed permission from before approaching Job. God owns all the money in the world, and knows all of the people. This all-powerful being, as it says in Romans 8:32, will give us all things. If you don't like praying or reading your bible, bring it to God- ask him to make you like it. this being LOVES us and we can ask him for anything, including all the desires and abilities needed in order to chase after him. Again God is not just a helpline for what we "need", personally I have found myself greatly affected by simply praying that God would do whatever he wants with me, because he knows exactly what I need.


John 14:13-14 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it