Is this how you feel at times I know many things about God, but I still don’t know God himself the way I want to know him. I know many things about God, but I still don’t know God himself the way I want to know him. I wish I could say God walks with me and talks with me on a constant basis, but sometimes I feel as though I’m walking alone in silence. I believe that God is there and that he is not silent, but all too often I do not hear his voice or perceive his presence. Even when I’m able to concentrate and really think about what the Bible says, my head may just pick up more facts without my heart getting any closer to God. It hurts to admit that I experience less of God than I long for. It hurts when God seems more like a distant concept than a nearby Father. It hurts not to know God as well as I’d like. Being a preacher makes it hurt even more. If I am beset by the feeling that I don’t know God as well as I should, how dare I introduce others to him? When I speak about the joy and wonder of knowing Jesus, am I advertising more than what I’ve tasted myself? As a messenger for God, I want to speak from the overflow of my heart, not from dryness and thirst. Usually I keep such thoughts to myself. My calling is to proclaim Jesus and to build faith in him, not to talk about my personal experience (or lack of it). You need Jesus more than you need to know about the feebleness of my faith. The Bible is true and the Lord is wonderful, regardless of what I happen to feel at a given moment. I would not bother telling of my own thirst in relation to God, except that I know many others are also thirsty and have much the same longing for God that I have. Do you want to know God better? Do you crave a closer relationship with him? If so, I speak to you as a fellow traveler, not as one who has arrived at the destination. I am not way out ahead of you in my relationship with God, shouting back some instructions on how you can get as close to God as I am. A. W. Tozer, a pastor from an earlier generation, wrote a spiritual classic called The Pursuit of God. Tozer believed in accurate Bible teaching but said such teaching is not enough. “There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ,“ wrote Tozer, “but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing, which their teaching simply does not satisfy? They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.“ But in many churches, that’s not happening. “In its stead,“ said Tozer, “are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.“ And may I add, it was never intended to replacement our close relationship with our lover. After all isn’t that what being in him is all about. A love relationship!
Posted on: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 21:38:51 +0000
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