Jacob
2008-08-04 02:05:31 UTC
I am not thinking about people seeking God when they are in trouble.
Most of us do go after God at such times. In fact, those may be times
God is trying to catch our attention by shaking us a bit. He wasn't
able to get through to us by ordinary means, and so He hopes that at
least 'problems' may cause us to take notice of Him. My question is
why we aren't seeking after God all the time. The answer is that we
have dozed off, spiritually speaking.
Jesus said that it was only the sick and not the healthy ones who
needed a doctor (Lk.5:31). We may think that we have come to the
Saviour, we are already saved, and now we are OK! Are we, really? What
about the "sins that easily beset us" (He.12:1)? We are justified, but
have we become like Jesus yet? Aren't there a lot of spiritual
sicknesses in us that need to be dealt with by the Divine Physician?
But we may have dozed off, and become insensitive to the pricks of our
conscience. Perhaps we even tell ourselves that feeling convicted of
sin in our life has to do with the 'law' from which grace has set us
free! We need to wake up!
Isn't Jesus the One we declare to be altogether lovely and the One
everybody ought to know? Do we know Him so well that there isn't much
more that we need to get to know? I am not referring only to the
knowledge that comes through study, but also to personal experience.
Here we have the most wonderful, interesting, wise and powerful Person
in the universe, and we don't have time to get to know Him better!
How is it that when we are in a difficult situation and we seek God we
aren't able to hear His voice? Isn't it because we aren't so used to
hearing His voice at other times that we are unable to recognise it
when we hear it in the midst of many other voices? Even though we are
His sheep, we haven't been paying much attention to Him while we were
in the green pastures (Jn.10:27).
On the other hand, when we are taken up with many people and things of
this earth, don't we realise that they are distracting us from the one
thing that we should be seeking after (Lk.10:42)? What was the one
thing that Jesus told Mary was needed? That we should sit at His feet
and learn from Him - in other words, to get to know Him better.
Things can even become so bad because we have neglected going to Him
and sought instead other 'gods' - people and things we value and spend
out time for - that when we finally turn to God He closes His ears
towards us (Je.2:28).
Most of the world lies in darkness not knowing the One who loves them
and has given Himself for them. We pride ourselves in claiming that
God has made us His children through His grace. But through our
neglect of Him in our daily lives, and the limited time we have for
Him in the midst of all our work, 'relaxation,' and other
'unavoidable' commitments we seem to be giving an impression to the
world around us that our God is just another philosophical concept!
How sad for us!
Most of us do go after God at such times. In fact, those may be times
God is trying to catch our attention by shaking us a bit. He wasn't
able to get through to us by ordinary means, and so He hopes that at
least 'problems' may cause us to take notice of Him. My question is
why we aren't seeking after God all the time. The answer is that we
have dozed off, spiritually speaking.
Jesus said that it was only the sick and not the healthy ones who
needed a doctor (Lk.5:31). We may think that we have come to the
Saviour, we are already saved, and now we are OK! Are we, really? What
about the "sins that easily beset us" (He.12:1)? We are justified, but
have we become like Jesus yet? Aren't there a lot of spiritual
sicknesses in us that need to be dealt with by the Divine Physician?
But we may have dozed off, and become insensitive to the pricks of our
conscience. Perhaps we even tell ourselves that feeling convicted of
sin in our life has to do with the 'law' from which grace has set us
free! We need to wake up!
Isn't Jesus the One we declare to be altogether lovely and the One
everybody ought to know? Do we know Him so well that there isn't much
more that we need to get to know? I am not referring only to the
knowledge that comes through study, but also to personal experience.
Here we have the most wonderful, interesting, wise and powerful Person
in the universe, and we don't have time to get to know Him better!
How is it that when we are in a difficult situation and we seek God we
aren't able to hear His voice? Isn't it because we aren't so used to
hearing His voice at other times that we are unable to recognise it
when we hear it in the midst of many other voices? Even though we are
His sheep, we haven't been paying much attention to Him while we were
in the green pastures (Jn.10:27).
On the other hand, when we are taken up with many people and things of
this earth, don't we realise that they are distracting us from the one
thing that we should be seeking after (Lk.10:42)? What was the one
thing that Jesus told Mary was needed? That we should sit at His feet
and learn from Him - in other words, to get to know Him better.
Things can even become so bad because we have neglected going to Him
and sought instead other 'gods' - people and things we value and spend
out time for - that when we finally turn to God He closes His ears
towards us (Je.2:28).
Most of the world lies in darkness not knowing the One who loves them
and has given Himself for them. We pride ourselves in claiming that
God has made us His children through His grace. But through our
neglect of Him in our daily lives, and the limited time we have for
Him in the midst of all our work, 'relaxation,' and other
'unavoidable' commitments we seem to be giving an impression to the
world around us that our God is just another philosophical concept!
How sad for us!