You go to church. You know about God. You pray sometimes, well, mostly at meals. You try to read the bible once in a while. You have a small group, perhaps with a few people whom you can identify with and spend time together. You feel that everything's going well for you... unless it doesn't. Never mind that, let's turn to God and pray now, shall we? You do so, you feel better. You are unsure of what will happen but you tell yourself that you do trust God. You seem satisfied. You go on your way to do the things you'd normally do. You're a Christian. After all, you've made the commitment to believe in Jesus, right?
But it does not seem to be enough. Every sermon or elder you come across seems to be driving at you the message of consistently reading God's word, or even to study it to great depth. You cannot comprehend how does one actually bring himself to do that? You smile, and continue on your way. You hear some of your church friends talking about various lectures and sermons coming from the great names... probably people with names you've never heard of and qualifications in areas you'd never even knew existed. You feel that your friends are 'overly-enthusiastic' about the faith, but you're polite enough to withhold that sarcastic comment or joke.
Bottom line:
People put way too much emphasis on that book. Do they really expect you to be reading it 24/7?
How about this:
You follow the word of God very carefully through the day. You do your daily quiet time, spending lots of time making those elaborate notes on what the passage is saying. You go for bible study, prepared! You study in-depth all the chapters and books in the bible. You'd even look up on the historical context at times! You attend conferences and talks by all the professors whom you've read about... after all, you have all their books, don't you? You feel that you really do enjoy reading the bible, and it satisfies that intellectual craving of yours. Maybe somewhere along the way, you might even decide to pursue a formal education in Theology or perhaps in Religious Studies. Seems like the kind of life a well-read disciple of God would have, right?
But it does not seem to enough. Something feels lackluster. You can't seem to shake off the feeling that despite all that you do and read on a daily basis, there's something that is still not right. You feel a certain emptiness, you feel a void, you feel a need to have something fill you up. You don't understand how that other friend of yours from church seem to be walking well with God when you know they probably don't study the bible as much as you do. After all, the more you read God's word, the better a disciple you should be, right?
Bottom line:
You're doing every thing you should be doing, reading, studying, writing; so what is it that I'm missing?
If you've felt any of the above feelings, fret not. There is nothing wrong with you! In fact, it is normal to feel so. However, just because something is normal, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is ideal. So what exactly is the issue that we are dealing with here?
The heart of the problem lies in the lack of a fundamental relationship with God. This results in us shifting between extremes of the spectrum: We either get too distant from His word or we get too consumed by the word itself. The keyword here (which was underlined twice above) is satisfaction. We are comfortable with satisfaction. We look for satisfaction in things. When we become too distant from the word and end up not reading, often the problem comes from within our satisfaction in our salvation. We are okay were mere salvation: we do not crave for more, and neither do we feel the need to. We have become satisfied with our salvation. Conversely, the other extreme lies in a satisfaction that stems from accomplishment. We feel accomplished or enlightened when we study the word, and that gets to our head. Eventually, we learn to become merely satisfied by the knowledge coming from the word without any true relationship with God the Father.
However, what God truly wants is to mend our relationship with Him. Sin has distorted this relationship between us and God wants for us to reconcile with Him. While it is true Jesus died so that we may gain salvation, it is also important to keep in mind that Jesus died so that we may have a right relationship with God.
Bottom line:
You're doing every thing you should be doing, reading, studying, writing; so what is it that I'm missing?
If you've felt any of the above feelings, fret not. There is nothing wrong with you! In fact, it is normal to feel so. However, just because something is normal, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is ideal. So what exactly is the issue that we are dealing with here?
The heart of the problem lies in the lack of a fundamental relationship with God. This results in us shifting between extremes of the spectrum: We either get too distant from His word or we get too consumed by the word itself. The keyword here (which was underlined twice above) is satisfaction. We are comfortable with satisfaction. We look for satisfaction in things. When we become too distant from the word and end up not reading, often the problem comes from within our satisfaction in our salvation. We are okay were mere salvation: we do not crave for more, and neither do we feel the need to. We have become satisfied with our salvation. Conversely, the other extreme lies in a satisfaction that stems from accomplishment. We feel accomplished or enlightened when we study the word, and that gets to our head. Eventually, we learn to become merely satisfied by the knowledge coming from the word without any true relationship with God the Father.
However, what God truly wants is to mend our relationship with Him. Sin has distorted this relationship between us and God wants for us to reconcile with Him. While it is true Jesus died so that we may gain salvation, it is also important to keep in mind that Jesus died so that we may have a right relationship with God.
God wants for us to become His children again.
When we have reached the heart of the problem, it is essential to evaluate our standing with God. When we understand what God wants and expects from us, we know what to do in order to achieve that. I personally do not think God expects all of us to gain a PhD in Theology or for all of us to become pastors. I do not think God intends for us to become professors to minister to huge crowds, giving lectures on intellectual religious debates. I feel that these callings are more for the individual. However, I also do not think God enjoys seeing us turn away from His word, merely satisfied with the salvation He has given us.
You see, our relationship with God is really like the relationships with the people around us. When you really do care for the other party, you'd invest time, energy, and display interest. That is a fundamental concept that we have to learn to apply.
So be it studying the word in-depth and attaining higher qualifications in the study of the bible; or being reluctant to spend time reading the word; just remember, it's your relationship with God - you make the call.
Praying for a good weekend for all, peace out.
Matt
