1 Corinthians 2:9
However, as it is written: "No eye has seen,no ear has heard,no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

Friday, May 30, 2008

We Make It So Hard

Do you, in your religious experience, ever feel tired? Do you ever feel like there's a lot to do to fulfill your obligation at church? Do you ever feel empty? Like there must be something more? Do you feel bored in your spiritual walk? We place such a premium on conversion into our faith(s) that we fail in the most important part, and that is to grow to know God, our Father, our Saviour, our Redeemer, in the intimate way he craves. Conversion is the beginning, not the end. Yet once we are "saved" we seem, or at least many I know seem, to wonder around aimlessly, filling our spiritual walk with ritual meant to bring us in lockstep with others rather than digging deep into a personal relationship with Him that saved us to begin with.
I read the first part of a book last night by a man named A.W. Tozer. The book, "The Pursuit of God", really focused in on this feeling. It hammered away at our so called ritual and how we seem to add to the simplicity of just knowing our God. I think we find this boredom in our spiritual walks because we don't know where we are walking. My wife made this statement recently, "we seem to always be talking about change in our worship but nobody ever changes anything. Kinda sounds like politicians today doesn't it. ANYWAY, Tozer made this statement that I found hits all of this square on the head:

I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.


Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy
time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and the servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.


If we would find God amid all the religious externals we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now as always God discovers Himself to `babes' and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.


When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the `and' lies our great woe. If we omit the `and', we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.


It's simple, really, we are not called to have grand programs or ministries, we are called to long for a relationship with the Father. Inspiring worship and this change we discuss will be manifest in the elimination of the man made inhibitions we put on worship and will all be in direct correlation to the more intimate relationship we have with God. It's just a shame we can't figure this out...

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