O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.
Show me Thy glory, I pray thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long."
~The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer
Have you ever met someone who was utterly and desperately in love with Jesus? I have. My wife's grandma Clara.
I spoke recently at Grandma Clara's funeral, and I could honestly tell the mourners gathered that I had never known anyone more excited to see Jesus. Every morning Clara would kneel by her bed and spend precious hours with her Savior and Lover; later in the day, just the sight of that corner of her bed would bring joy-filled tears and a deep anticipation of the next morning spent kneeling in His presence.
Grandma Clara acted toward God the way we act toward people we're madly in love with.
When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You'll drive for hours to be together, even if it's only for a short while. You don't mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You'll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you're crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it's painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.
In his book God is the Gospel, John Piper essentially asks whether we are in love with God:
The critical question for our generation- and for every generation- is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?
How many of you will read those words and say, "You know, I just might be okay with that"? If you are as deeply in love with God as Grandma Clara was, you know you could never be satisfied in a heaven without Christ.
My fear in writing the previous chapter is that it only evokes in you fear and guilt. Personal experience has taught me that actions driven by fear and guilt are not an antidote to lukewarm, selfish, comfortable living. I hope you realize instead that the answer is love.
Grandma Clara used to say, "I love love." Don't we all? Don't we crave it? And isn't that what God wants of us- to crave this relationship with Him as we crave all genuine love relationships? Isn't that what brings Him glory- when believers desire Him and are not merely slaves who serve Him out of obligation?
"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge
the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in
a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." ~Galatians 5:13-14
Do you understand what this passage is saying? When we love, we're free! We don't have to worry about a burdensome load of commands, because when we are loving, we can't sin. Do you feel free in your Christian life?
In the same chapter, Paul writes, "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (v.6). Is loving God- and, by extension, loving people- what you are about? Is it what being a Christian means to you? Do you live as though faith, demonstrated through love, really is the only thing that counts?
For a long time, I surely didn't. And most of the people I knew were the same way.
There is so often a great disparity between how we feel about faith and how we are meant to feel. Why do so few people genuinely find joy and pleasure in their relationship with God? Why do most people feel they have to either pay God back for all He's done (buy His love) or somehow keep making up for all their inadequacies and failures (prove their love)? Why are the words of Psalm 63:1-5 not an honest reflection of our lives on most days?
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my
body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have
seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because
your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long
as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as
with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name is utterly disgusting to God. And when we are honest, we have to admit that it isn't very fulfilling or joyful to us, either.
But the solution isn't to try harder, fail, and then make bigger promises, only to fail again. It does no good to muster up more love for God, will yourself to love Him more. When loving Him becomes an obligation, one of many things we have to do, we end up focusing even more on ourselves.
...we are called to surrender everything for Christ- a concept most churchgoers are not particularly thrilled by. So what is missing? What's wrong with this picture? Are we just fooling ourselves that we really can be in love with God and that it is more satisfying than anything else? I don't believe so.
God wants to change us; He died so that we could change.
The answer lies in letting Him change you...
(read the book if you want more!)
(read the book if you want more!)
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
by Francis Chan
If you haven't read this book yet, do it. You won't regret it.
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