When we see people come to Christ we often encourage them to read their Bible and pray each day, and that morphs into telling believers that they need to set apart a period of time each day for “devotions”, to read their Bibles, apply what they read to their lives and to spend time in prayer.
Most pastors will say something like “I don’t pray as often as I ought…”, and so reinforce the concept that there is something we need to do.
The fact is you don’t have to read your Bible, but you get to. You don’t have to apply it to your lives, but you get to. And you don’t have to pray, but you get to pray to a God who is really there and is listening and able to answer, and wants to hear from you any time you come to Him in prayer, and is happy to have you bend His ear all day and all night, granting requests as is appropriate.
God asks us to love him and walk in His ways, but not much more than that. The Bible reading, application to our lives, and especially prayer are a natural effect of our love for Him. He wants us to love Him enough to want to read His letter to us, spend time aligning our lives with His, and sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings with Him.
We also have a habit of telling believers that they “need” to share their faith with others who don’t know Him. That’s like telling a recently engaged woman she needs to show off her ring. Her view is she “gets to.”
Paul indicates that there is a special benefit of sharing your faith with unbelievers. Philemon 6: I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. So yes, you don’t have to share your faith. But you get to, and the life you live loving Him and spending time with Him will change you into someone who will naturally cause people to ask for the reason for the hope that is in you. I Peter 3:15.
This is not as new as we are inclined to believe. The Law was given to Israel through Moses as a national guide to prosperity personally and as a nation. After 39 years of living this in the wilderness, Moses prepares them to keep the Covenant and the Law in the land through a lengthy address. Deuteronomy offers insight into God’s desire in 10:12-13 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”
Loving Him comes before observing his commands.
But Moses admits that there is a structural problem with the people. In the same address (29:3-4) he says…With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. Without loving God all those commands are empty rules, and our sinful hearts cannot bear them. Paul writes that I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. Romans 7:10.
There is a place for obedience, but it is not on the basis of fear of punishment. God wants our obedience to be a function of our love for Him.
In John 14:15 Jesus makes it clear. If you love me you will obey what I command. In v.23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
He then goes on to emphasize that relationship with the Spirit, and give us the command to love each other because He and the Father are dwelling in both us and them.