A Personal Relationship With Jesus

What struck me today was in Luke 7. In response to the faith of the Roman officer Jesus said, "I tell you, I haven't seen faith like this in all Israel." Odd. I'm sure there was a lot of faith in Israel. Faith was bred into them from the moment of their birth. But obviously it was not the kind of faith Jesus found amazing. I'm guessing that the faith which was plentiful in Israel (and still today) was a faith in an inherited religion-a system of belief in God that includes prescriptions, rules and regulations about how to approach God and life. In cases like that it is awfully easy to have faith in the religion-instead of faith in the God of that religion. What was amazing to Jesus is that the Roman officer shared none of the religious faith of Israel but demonstrated a great deal of faith in the person of Jesus himself. He got personal with his faith. He invested trust in Jesus personally. That is what amazed Jesus. The whole point of the religion of Israel was to point people in the direction of a personal relationship with God, not to make the religion an end in itself. I found this reading to be deeply encouraging about the approach to Jesus following we offer at Heartsong. We are not a religious people-not because religion in itself is bad, but because it is mostly someone else's. What Jesus following really is in not a religion but a relationship. And each one of us has to pursue our own personal relationship with Jesus. That might not amaze him anymore, but it will sure be amazing to us. I know that it continues to be for me.