I've heard and read so much about "having a relationship with Jesus and God", but I just don't get it.
To me the Bible is a gigantic rule book telling you that if you don't follow every single detail of it, God will make you suffer for eternity.
How am I supposed to feel any love for that??
How am I supposed to just be like "Ok. My life means nothing. I'm just a puppet of God following all of His rules. I'm just a robot. I'm ok with all of this."
Actually, your description of the Bible is a caricature, a cartoon version, of what the Bible actually is. It's no wonder, then, that you are thinking and feeling as you are. Have you read the Bible for yourself?
The Bible doesn't call you merely to obedience to God's commands. It reveals who God is and what His purposes are in making you (and all of the universe); it describes God's loving and gracious redemption of humanity from the consequences of sin; it provides wisdom, and principles, and guidelines for meaningful, fulfilling and God-centered living.
Apart from God, your life really does mean nothing. If God does not exist, you are an accident of nature, existing without purpose or meaning, insignificant, short-lived and soon forgotten. Without God, you are just a DNA replicating meat-bag. So, live as you like, live to maximize your pleasure, because when your life ends, that's it, you disappear forever, a submicroscopic blip in the life of the universe that is expanding toward the empty, cold blackness of heat-death. Does this sound preferable to a life given meaning by its Creator? Not to me.
Does God expect you to be a puppet or robot? Of course not. But He
does expect you to live as
He commands in His universe. You can, though, choose not to do so. But, remember, you're in God's universe, existing only because He makes it possible for you to do so. Why, then, should you be able to do just as you please, ignoring God when it suits you and choosing your will over His with impunity? Why shouldn't God insist you live His way in His universe?
They say, "Call upon the name of the Lord while He may be found".
I try my best. I call out to both Jesus and God. Nothing. No feelings, no peace, no joy. Nothing.
I scream to both of them. I ask for understanding. I ask for wisdom.
Nothing.
How am I supposed to have a relationship with them if they won't even talk to me?
If you want to hear from God, if you truly want wisdom and understanding,
study the Bible. In it, God tells all of us what He wants from us, who He is, who we are, and how to relate with Him.
Screaming at God, then, to give you what can be readily found in the Bible is a bit silly, don't you think?
1 John 2:6
"Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did".
That scripture infuriates me because its telling me to give up everything I love to do and just be as Jesus was. I want to follow this rule, but it makes me angry because I love to do so many things that I can't see Jesus doing.
You aren't going to be a prophesied Messiah; you aren't going to atone for the sins of the world by dying on a cross and then rising from the dead after three days; you aren't going to found a new religion that will change the course of human history. But this is what Jesus did, right? And you're supposed to live just like he did, right? Can you see the problem in taking too literally the verse you cited? Be like Jesus, yes,
in character and fundamental life-purposes, but do so in the particular ground in which you've been planted. Be like Jesus where you are and in the things you do.
God does not ask you to give up your life because you ought to, or because you fear the consequences of not doing so. In fact, if
love does not motivate your obedience to His commands, God will not accept your obedience. He wants you to live according to His will and way
because you love Him more than anything else (
Matt. 22:36-38). And until you do, the thought of giving up your current self-centered life will only ever make you angry, and resentful, and unwilling.
How am I supposed to change my view of everything I have ever known!?!
One step at a time. One divine truth at a time. By God's enabling power. In loving submission to Him.