13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,” ~ Isaiah 29:13
I recently rewatched a series entitled The Middle. God and going to church were recurring themes throughout the series, which should have been a nice addition, but for me, it almost made me sad. The more I watched, the more I realized that this family really represented and showed the current state of the Church today. They often talked about God, they showed prayer every now and then, they showed them going to church, but never did they actually show them having a relationship with God. Christianity had no impact on their lives whatsoever. They believed in God and believed they were saved but had no fruit to show for it.
This is the state of the Church today. It’s very surface-level Christianity. We go to church because that’s how you make it into Heaven. You don’t have to do anything else. You don’t have to better yourself. The Light of God doesn’t have to shine through you. You just have to have some form of belief that God exists and go to church on Sundays. That’s it. Then, when something happens to us or a loved one, and we pray but receive no answer, we want to blame God. We want to question His goodness and love or try to make ourselves feel better and say He’s no longer in the healing, restoring, miracle-working business.
The old saying really does ring true:
The religion that doesn’t change you, cannot save you.
When our religion becomes just about playing a useless role and nothing else, then our religion is also useless. Christ said as long as He is in the world, He is the Light of the world. Here’s the thing, Christ is no longer in the world. He is seated at the right hand of the Father; that is why He looked at His disciples and followers and boldly proclaimed that they were the light of the world. Why? Because when we accept Christ, it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us and through us. Therefore, our religion should change us. We should never continue in our old ways, just going through the motions; we should always be changing for the better. We should be running the race set before us. We should be lighting the world.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Shine The Light.