Our love for Christ is more important to Him than all of our service to Him. Strict obedience and services are not enough. Love for Jesus must come first.

One misconception is that if we follow God in the life of faith, and that means obedience - that we read His Word, we're obedient, we pray, we go to church, we do the right things - that somehow His blessing means we're going to be okay.

Communication with God is vital to a vibrant relationship with him. We will never really know God in an intimate, personal relationship if we don't talk to him. Half of our communication with God is listening to what he has to say through his Word, which is why reading our Bibles is so important. The other half of communication is talking to him, which is prayer. Prayer is also important because the Bible commands us to pray.

Prayer is hard work. We may neglect it because we're too tired, too busy, or too distracted to put into prayer the effort required.

God knows that sometimes we lack words to express our feelings, heart-cry, thoughts. And so within the Bible he includes people's prayers as models to help our own.

Faith is like a tender plant, rooted in Christ alone, watered by the Spirit and the Word, strengthened by the winds of adversity and the sunshine of blessing.

Religion can be one of the greatest impediments to finding God.