We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved by one encounter.
Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.
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.There are many quotes in the first chapter of The Pursuit of God that I wrote down to comment on or to guide my first response to this amazing book. I think I wrote down 7-8 of them. I think 3 will suffice to help me respond to this first chapter.
I am guilty of complacency. I have been that person that lived like I only had one encounter with God and thought that was enough. I have bought the lie that I needed God and...
I have many "and"s, but at the forefront is convenience. I think inside of me, I believe that God and convenience will give me the satisfaction my heart is looking for. But convenience is just the desire in me that leads to complacency - I just do enough to get by and I am content. But I usually don't realize that I miss the opportunity and the joy that comes from going further to experience God. My end goal was really convenience and not God.
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Like a friend taken for granted, I do not cultivate my relationship with my Friend - I only do enough to get by.
So what needs to change? I need to cast off complacency, not settle for convenience and be intentional in my communion with God (3 C's... that could be a sermon). That is why my church's Prayer 41 is such a challenge and a great channel to break out of complacency. It is my hope my church's small group can hold me accountable to.
I just finished the first chapter and I'm quickly realizing why this book is held in such high regard. There are so many great quotes in this chapter but the one that really struck a chord with me was
ReplyDelete"How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of 'accepting' Christ and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found him we need no more seek him."
This was a major stumbling block in my own faith. Having accepted Christ I found myself wondering "now what?" It took me several years of a aimless wandering before I was able to see that God's work in me was not done. That in fact it had only begun. Only then did I begin to truly seek to know Him.
I'm really enjoyed the prayer at the end of the first chapter and I'm looking forward to learning what other wisdom Mr Tozer can share.