Worthless Tradition

It’s Resurrection Sunday of 2025.

I’m feeling extra reflective this morning…

Decades have passed since I accepted Jesus. Looking back on our relationship I can see how Faithful God has been. How God met me where I was…not at the level of being perfect, but on the path.

And so I did the common, average thing of weekly church attendance. I had a Bible, but in those growing up years I never understood it or studied it on my own. 

I was more concerned with what was going on around me…grades, how my hair I looked, would I make the volleyball team? 

“Dear God, please help me ______(fill in the blank).” Lots of requests for God to move on my behalf, no thoughts on how I could be used to move on His behalf. 

I did’t see God as a relationship, but more as a genie in a bottle. I went to Him to get things, mostly.

I read, I memorized, but I didn’t understand. Not really.

I knew when to stand up and sit down, I learned the songs, I learned how to act at church. But that’s all it really was: an act. 

Accepting Jesus was the avoidance of Hell, not a relationship that could transform me and lead me into an amazing, Abundant, intimate Life with God.

As I grew up I began to struggle emotionally and mentally for reasons I didn’t understand. 

Now I see the lies planted in my belief system from that daily intake of standards from the world. 

I see the lies planted in my expectations. I now see how my beliefs were used against me. 

So there is a recommitment for me today in my relationship with God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. A recommitment to God as my First Love. 

Humbling out to let Holy Spirit show me where I’ve become lukewarm or mechanical, rote with Him, falling back into old religious ways.

Lord Jesus told us that religion was “worthless tradition taught by men.” (Matthew 15:9) and that “as you believe it’s done to you.”(Matthew 8:13)

It’s an old problem as we make the transition from sight to Faith…getting and staying present, in Flow with Holy Spirit; not just behaving out of habit or tradition.

And so I missed it. 

I can look back and see that I missed the Abundant Life of Christ because I had never really followed the instruction. I was trained in behavior modification…how to act a certain way, look a certain way…and yet I was the same inside. In my heart, in my thoughts and desires.

When I asked Holy Spirit why, He was very clear: I had not yet “de-conformed” from the pattern of the world (Romans 12:2). I was on a steady mental diet of the world: in music, television, movies, books, fashion, hair, all of it.

Looking back I laugh because it is so much like wanting to lose weight without changing what you eat or drink, or how you move your body. 

The change God is looking for is a change of heart based on our love and relationship with Him…not just temporary changes in behavior to look a certain way for others.

Prayer:

“Thank you God for your infinite patience and love for us! Thank you for another opportunity today to get to know you and follow you and work with you as you work with me and through me!”

For more foundational content check out the book: https://a.co/d/9JelM0S