Devotional from Pastor Tim Chalas

For many of us, being “close to God” has felt like something we have to manage. When we’re consistent, we feel near. When we’re not, we assume we’ve drifted. Without realizing it, we turn our relationship with Him into something measured by our performance, and that kind of striving always leads to frustration.

But the gospel is much better than that! Your closeness to God was never because of your effort in the first place. Scripture says you have been brought near by the blood of Christ, not by your sweat. What you could never accomplish through trying harder, Jesus accomplished completely for you.

This means your relationship with God isn’t fragile, fluctuating, or fleeting. It doesn’t rise and fall with your behavior. When you placed your faith in Christ, you weren’t put on a journey toward God; you were placed into union with Him. You are not occasionally near; you are permanently united.

That changes everything. You don’t pray to get closer; you pray because you are close. You don’t pursue acceptance; you live from it. The Christian life is not about maintaining closeness with God but learning to live from how close you actually are.

Religion says, “Do more to get closer.” Grace says, “Rest, you already are.”

Today, you can let go of the pressure to measure where you stand with God. You’re not distant, even if it sometimes feels that way. You don’t have to arrive or close a gap. So let that truth settle in your mind, quiet your soul, and give you a steady confidence as you walk with Him.

Colossians 2:13-14 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.