Copied from my blog:

“How are you? It’s good to see you!”

That was the first thing that my relative said to me when I came back home today.

Adjusting to university life has been tough. Evening activities are the norm if you have CCA, and some evenings are taken by talks and seminars. For the past two days, I arrived at home late, and was too tired to even poke my face inside Auntie’s room to say “I’m back, goodnight.” Basically, she hasn’t seen me for two days in a row. It was, therefore, little surprise that she exclaimed when I was finally home for dinner today.

As I took my dinner, however, I came to a saddening realization, by God’s grace. He revealed to me that this is pretty much what He has been saying to many Christians today.

To many of us, we are in God’s presence when we go to church, small group meetings and retreat. And only those. Once the Lord dismisses us all in peace, we are back to living a normal life, and our Lord is left at a distance from us, watching as we mind our own business. Some of us meet Him only once every few days, or once a week; worse still, some of us meet Him even less often than that! It is therefore of little surprise that when we meet Jesus, he greets you joyfully, “How are you? It’s good to see you!”

Y’know, when He asks you “How are you?” it’s not that He doesn’t know whether you are fine or not; He knows all about you. He’s asking you to tell Him because you haven’t been talking to Him!

Praying is talking to God.

Do you pray out of formality (a.k.a. “because we need to pray every meeting” or because you sincerely have petitions to cry out before God? Do you mean what you pray or are you praying a “formula” prayer brainlessly? If you are simply chanting your prayer, I tell you the truth: other religions do it too, and they can remember more complicated chants? Cool right? (Sarcasm fully intended.)

I know, I’m guilty of it too. When I come back from university tired, at times I’d spend seconds pondering whether to pray through my prayer list, requests that God has entrusted me to make, or just talk to Him briefly and go off to sleep. Most of the time, I’d decide to persist in praying all that I want to pray, but feel that prayer has become a commitment that I wanted to get done before I go to bed (a.k.a. no life, no joy), so when I found out I’d repent and stay quiet for a while as I still myself.

Do we spend only time in “spiritual activities” with God, and then disappear for the rest of the week? Do we go forth in joy, but live our life as if He is not around? Do we talk to Him for our needs, then go out and forget about Him? Do we try to cushion out the “worldly” and “spiritual” side of our lives?

Many of us equate living a holy life with living a righteous life, but here’s the catch: we can do it, non-Christians can do it too, and God will give us an “F” for that, Christians or not, because there is no way that we can be righteous in His own eyes. The very reason that we Christians stand righteous before Him is Jesus.

Thank God He never gives up on us. He is always patiently waiting for us to come and be in His presence, for every time that we come to Him, He’d say “It’s good to see you!” He never complains about you keeping a distance from Him. Trust in Him, and His transforming power will manifest in you, and living a holy life will no longer be a heavy burden, but a light burden, for Jesus has promised us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. (Matthew 11:30) Live a life dependent on God, as if you truly belong to Him, as the apostle Paul exhorted us to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Rom 12:1)

Talk to God. Praise and worship Him. Every day.