Sometimes people say to me that they try to be a good Christian. That often means that they don't go to church, don't know much about the Bible, probably don't pray a lot, if at all, and perhaps don't even believe in God, but, "I try to be a good Christian." What they are implying by this usually comes down to attempting to behave to some extent in accordance with Jesus' teaching. For example, he told us to love one another and to behave towards them as we would want them to treat us. This is, of course, all great. If we can hold onto these principles, then we're doing really well. Being Christian isn't based on going to church; it also isn't fundamentally about reading the Bible. These things help enormously, but don't define Christianity. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 13) famously wrote that if we do all sorts of other amazing Christian things, but don't love, then it all becomes rather meaningless.
So we can never downplay what people tell us about loving others and treating them well. Doing lots of 'spiritual' things, but being unpleasant isn't just not real Christianity, but also earns the church a reputation of hypocrisy. However, there is much more. Rather than just being good to people, even if that's to a major degree and forms an integral part of our lives, perhaps taking up a lot of our time, energy and money, we can also have an incredible relationship with God - the creator of the universe. So many people miss out on this aspect of being Christian. In fact, it's impossible really to be a Christian without having a personal relationship with God.
I was discussing this with some people from church a few days ago. One of the benefits of going to church is, of course, that we can hear directly from others why they believe in God, what he has done in their lives and what relating to him means to them, which encourages us in our faith. We can do the same for others as well. It was great to hear about their experiences of the power of prayer as God answered them, how he had transformed their lives, changing their perspective on life, making them new people. This wasn't God confined to a book, however good a book the Bible might be; it wasn't God confined to church services on Sunday mornings either. This was God in action in peope's lives, day to day, year on year. This was what Jesus died and rose again to achieve. This was real Christianity in action.
It was also really good to be able to talk about people's experiences of prayer. There are so many different ways to pray and we all approach God in a manner that reflects us and our relationship with him. It is good, though, to explore other ways of praying as well and that can sometimes deepen our relationship with God. The important thing, however, is that we pray. If we talk to God, then he answers in one way or another, especially if we take the time to listen, and that brings us into a deeper understanding of his ways. We learn to relate to God by spending time with him, as in any other relationship. We can stand, kneel, lift our hands, lie face down, dance; pray silently, whisper, talk normally, sing, shout; pray privately, with our family, with friends, or in public; at home, at church, at work, in the street, on the train, while cycling (as demonstrated above); use set prayers, pray passages of the Bible, make up our own prayers as we go along - some, or all of these. Personally I like them all.
Watchman Nee wrote a book on prayer and a pastor once told his church that it was very good, but we didn't need to bother reading it because it basically just says, "Pray!" So don't worry about how, where, or when - just pray. The Christian life is a life spent with God and if we don't pray then that just doesn't work. Reading the Bible is enormously useful and we learn in there how to pray, as well as many other things; going to church is enormously useful and we learn there how to pray, as well as many other things - I recommend doing both. Yet, it is only out of our own personal relationship with God in prayer, through his Holy Spirit training us, that we learn to love, treat others as we would have them treat us, and much more: we find that God is a God of changed lives and miracles, good, kind, loving and gracious, but not tame.
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