When Religion Doesn't Work

[Darris McNeely] I well remember the conversation. She sat across from me in a coffee shop. Her shaking hands betrayed an uncomfortable agitation. It was clear she was nervous about what she would say, for the reason calling me to sit down and counsel with her.

She began, the church has let me down. It wasn't there for me when I was in need. She then reviewed her story. Marital problems, a large number of children and not enough money in the house. Some of the children were in their early teens at that point in a very difficult age, and they were causing some difficulty. As I listened, I could see she was slipping away to another life. Her mind was set. Despite all the time we had spent in counseling and the many sermons on faith, God, hope and family she could not see past the trouble she faced. Now she was set on turning away from the church, her faith, and the way of life she had known since childhood. God and religion had let her down. She was moving on to another life.

Does this sound familiar to you? Have you ever come to a place in life where it stopped working? Where God did not seem near or relevant? Where the church or religion you had known, believed and followed seemed to no longer work? Where a spiritual leader in whom you had put faith and confidence let you down because of sin or maybe the failure to live up to a standard?

In more than 50 years of ministry and church experience, I have seen this many times. What I described earlier is called an exit interview. You meet, you talk, people move on. There's little to be done in the moment other than listen with empathy and concern. Offer a kind word of warning or admonishment. When you watch people lose faith, it's a gut-wrenching moment. I've been there many times.

When I hear of a former classmate, colleague or fellow traveler talking about their journey, and they'll mention disillusionment or disappointment, I'm always moved by their expression. They were those with whom I once shared a faith. And together we walked to the house of God. We shared and talked about a common belief.

My answer as I go through this internal conversation is, it worked for me. And so I ask my friend in my mind, why didn't it work for you?

Now, when I say that it worked for me, I'm really summarizing a way of life that I learned as a young man, and which is still the guiding light and foundation for my life today.

When I ask what was missing for someone else, I'm wondering what was the missing key that would have locked in truth. When I say it worked for me, I am describing the foundation of life rooted in the Bible as God's revealed word, an instruction book about His existence and His purpose for the life that He created on this earth.

What are the keys to understanding how your life can work according to this word? To understand how religion can work? To understand how to live as God intended to fulfill His purpose for your life?

One of the first things to understand is this. God works. God is constant. He has an enduring faith in which life can be lived with confidence and living faith. Notice this about God's power. It says in Scripture that, by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (Colossians 1:17)

We're told in another place in Scripture that God upholds all things by the word of His power. God keeps it all together. That's how God works on the grand scale. This marvelous and vast universe, it works because God works. We live in an intricately designed planet set in the most optimum location within the universe to work the way it does. Water, air, elements, all existing here together to sustain the life forms that we know. They exist nowhere else in the observable universe. The sun, the moon, they're set to give light, control tides and other aspects of this privileged planet.

Our human life is here and is by the work of God. God works. If God can place man in this optimum environment, fine-tuned for life, then He does work. We have to understand that and never forget it. Don't say God was not there for me because God won't let you down.

When tragedy and suffering occur, when life throws the curveballs that might cause us to wobble just a bit, it's not because God didn't hear or answer.

Look around at this world, this environment. See the works of God. God does work. He's faithful. With Him there's no variance, no subtlety, no trickery or lies. With God there's no variation or shadow of turning, we're told in the book of James. God works. He's there when we call.

It's natural for us to question God when things go wrong in our life. Before taking a break from God or going on a detour in life, think about that. A wise person will step back. Think about the spiritual mind behind this world and conclude God's ways are greater than ours. We may lack understanding, but God does say in His Word that the heavens are higher than the earth, and so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

To know this God, we must also know the power of His Word. The Bible is the Word of God. It stood the test of time. It has withstood the critics who through the ages have attacked it as being the one source of truth upon which this world and the life on this world is based. Throughout His pages comes the challenge from God, prove me. Try me. Test whether this is true, that it does work.

Scripture says the words of the Lord are pure words like silver, tried in a furnace of fire, purified seven times.

God's Word can be counted on to be the guide for a good life. It has been proven in many ways, and the ultimate proof is in the life that it shapes and molds.

God's Word works. It can be relied upon to show us truth, ultimate truth, foundational truth, truth of teaching and practice revealing understanding and discernment.

When Christ stood before Pilate on trial for his life, the Roman governor asked, what is truth? Christ had said to him, for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pontius Pilate was a victim of his world, a world that did not know the true God and worshiped multiple gods and goddesses within hundreds of mythic cults and traditions. Pilate was jaded. Those gods didn't work for him. He relied on the rule of Rome, which relied on its own iron-fisted power. Its religious rituals, it had failed him. Pilate had the personification of truth in front of him in that moment in Christ, and he couldn't recognize it.

You know, our life today can be a little bit like that of Pilate. God's Word goes out into the world. The gospel is known. It is preached. You hear the true gospel here on Beyond Today. We speak the words and the way of truth from the Bible. It may be that God is working with you.

Do you recognize that truth? Or do the everyday matters of your life? A career, family, or other personal interests keep you from making the commitment it takes to develop a meaningful relationship with the God revealed in the Bible. That's where most people are. It's not what people want, and it's not that they don't want to live well or to live with purpose based on truth.

My experience in working with people for more than 50 years and teaching them about Christ and the purpose of the Father is this. I have seen good people desire to walk the roads of this life. They're sincere. There is one key to success, though, that I have found must be there. One factor necessary for all of us to discover the joy of salvation of church, of a life as a disciple following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. What is that one key?

What is it that we must do to learn that God works, that church works, that religion works? It's this. We must work. That's right. We must work by loving God with our whole being. We must work by obeying God with every part of our life.

When asked which is the great commandment in the law, Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And He said the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We want God, the church, and religion to work. But are we willing to do our part to work?

You might be surprised to learn the Bible has a lot to say about our work when it comes to a relationship with God, developing a relationship that works.

You see, a relationship with God will produce contentment, good works, a sound mind in love, all works based on God's character, His word, and His way of truth. It's done with the power of God's spirit in us, Christ in us, as the Scripture says.

This is where many who say God or the church let me down, or they say religion does not work and it isn't for me. That's where they miss the point of the Bible.

So let us take you through a study of how all this works. You see, that's the good news. We can learn how God works, how the word works, how truth works, and what we must do.

We have a free study guide. It's called The Church Jesus Built. This study guide can be the introduction that you need to begin to understand the church, why Christ started a church, why He has a church, and what its purpose is, how you fit in, and how it can work for you in your life, and how you can be a part of making it all work, and how that you can begin the road to a relationship with God, and a relationship that will bring the answers that you need for a life of contentment, peace of mind, and a deep relationship with God.

So go to ucg.org/bt497 to begin that study now, to begin that relationship with God that can bring you the answers to help you understand how it is that God works to keep yourself from ever taking your foot off of that path toward His coming Kingdom.