When God is sick of religion

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, - Isaiah 1v11-16

I find that whenever I talk to people about my faith I hear things like ‘I have my own religion.’ Even more often now I find people saying something like, ‘Look what religion has done for this world! It has caused fights and divisions and wars and rebellions and all manner of evil.’

The truth is – the second statement is correct. Religion has done and does all those things and more. It was a part of The Troubles that tore this little island apart. Religion is bad. It is awful. It is no good.

And God agrees.

God has no use for religion. It is worse than that – God hates religion. Religion is man-made. Here He says to an overly religious Israel – ‘Why do you come and offer sacrifices and incense? Why do you bother observing all your festivals and holy days? They are nothing but trouble to Me. I am tired of messing with them. When you do all these religious things I won’t pay any attention! Pray as much as you like, I won’t hear you!’

So what does God want? He wants action behind all the words. ‘Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, out away the evil things, stop doing evil.’

Religion produces strife and trouble. A relationship with God produces results.

This is not just for Israel. Those of us who claim faith in Christ had better be sure that our faith is truly in Him and not in our religious practices. How do we know? What kind of life does it produce.

The proof of the pudding (religion, or faith actually) is in the eating (doing).

Is our religion just that? Religion? Or is it a relationship?