Experience vs. Relationship (Part 3)

"I do all the "things" -- but I am not experiencing God." This is the sentiment I think most experiencing God books are trying to address. Someone who desires a deeper relationship with God, but the things they are trying aren't working. 
And some books say, stop doing the things. 
Some say, just keep doing the things. 
Other books say, do different things.
But once ensuring we know Jesus as Savior, many authors don't say anything about our ongoing relationship. Our relationship with God is pictured as a marriage. Just as marriage can't be sustained by merely consistently checking off the marriage checklist. Neither is a relationship with God healthy merely because we check off the spiritual checklist.
Certain things must be present to have a healthy marriage. They demonstrate and contribute to the health of the marriage. But these "things" are not the relationship. The same is true spiritually. We go to church and serve, and study our Bibles and pray, not because these things are the relationship -- but because we have a relationship already. The things are important, but it's less about the things and more about the reason that we do them. Motive is invisible, sometimes imperceptible (even to the individual), and absolutely key.
A while a woman may or may not know if a man is just going through the motions...God absolutely does.

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