I wonder sometimes how many people wake up every day, walk out the door and live a life filled with lies. How many people wake up believing the lie that they are unworthy, unloved and unwanted? How many live in the falsehood of legalism, constantly trying to “earn” God’s love? I wonder how many people have bought into religion and completely missed out on Jesus?
I know it’s possible to live life that way, because I did it. I lived a life of trying and doing, instead of a life of trusting and believing. Here are just a few of the lies I used to believe about being Christian …
1. Your behavior affects God’s love for you.
The truth is you don’t have to try to use your behavior to earn God’s love. He loves you despite your behavior. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. God’s love for you isn’t based on what you do or don’t do, it’s based on His Son, Jesus!
2. You have to ‘dress up’ when you go to church.
There is nothing in the Bible that says you have to wear a suit and tie or polished shoes to church. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not condemning the idea of wearing nice clothes to church. I’m just saying that your dress and attire is a personal preference, not a biblical command. God is interested in your heart, not your outfit. He looks on the internal of man, not the external.
3. Church is a weekly event and just a building.
Living in the Bible belt, going to church can sometimes be seen as just something that everyone does. It’s often compartmentalized and sectioned off from affecting the rest of our week. The church is frequently viewed as just a building and not a body. In reality, we should see the church as a body that just so happens to meet in a building. The Bible talks about the church as a living and breathing thing, not just a meeting that takes place each week with some singing and preaching. We weren’t meant to love an event, we were meant to love people.
4. Raising hands or displaying emotion in worship is reserved for the super-spiritual.
I’m not the most outgoing or excitable person in the world, so for me to display emotion or raise my hands in church, it was extremely awkward … at first. See, I had no problem lifting my hands in excitement at a football game, but for some reason I saw church differently. I discovered that my problem with lifting my hands in worship was a thought-process issue, not a personality issue. There is scripture after scripture offering biblical examples of the practice (see 1 Tim. 2:8). The Psalms are full of gut-wrenching emotion in response to God. David even encourages the expression of your worship by clapping your hands, shouting in a voice of triumph and even dancing. Worship is a matter of the heart, and anything we do externally should be in response to God moving internally. I do believe you can worship God quietly and solemnly, but if the only place you don’t feel emotion is at church then I would ask, “Why?”
5. The Bible is mostly about rules and regulations.
The Bible isn’t about rules; it’s about Jesus. When we view the Bible as a rulebook, we will lose interest quickly because there is no connection made. The Bible is designed to be used in the context of relationship. The goal in reading the Word shouldn’t be to get to the end of a certain chapter, but to meet Jesus along the way. If we know everything about the Bible, but don’t know Jesus personally, then we have missed the point!
I challenge you to ask yourself if you believe any of those ideas. You’re not alone if you do. The good news is there is hope, because there is truth. And the truth has the power to set you free (John 8:32). Don’t trust in religion or ritual, trust in Jesus.
What are some of the lies you may have bought into as a Christian?
