Journeys on the Sand
I've been thinking about Pastor Tony's sermon yesterday, especially the video on "Footprints-Revisited". If you didn't get to see it, please take time to look at the video and get ready for a laugh--it surprised us all, I think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djdFq42J3uc
God is not someone who abandons us, but He does want us to walk forward with Him in faith. Early in our Christian walk, He encourages us, feeds us with the sweetness of the Spirit, gives us glimpses of what it will be like to be mature in the Spirit. We are all fired up, ready to change the world for Jesus!
Of course, we are not mature Christians at that stage, no matter what we might think. But everything to do with God is such a "rush" that we may think more highly of ourselves than we should. If you are reading this, it is probably because you have come through that stage of Christian growth and may be wondering what on earth happened??
You may have been involved in prayer times when people got healed, saved, had their lives turned around. You probably remember when you couldn't get enough of church--3 or 4 times a week was no problem at all! You may have read your Bible until it tattered, memorized whole passages of scripture, consumed large quantities of sermon material from the radio, bought lots of books online.... It was just one "high" after another!
The ancients called this phase of growth "Consolation". God consoles us, draws us near to Him, gives us sweet treats, lets us feel His presence. It's a time of bonding and closeness, similar to when we were newborn babies and our mother was there to meet our every need. We never want it to end! But in order to grow, it did end, and so it is must with God as well.
The problem with Consolation is that we can't see who we really are. We don't see the brash, self-important, prideful manner in which we operate. We actually begin to believe that God's outpourings to our souls have something to do with merit on our parts! Can you believe it?? Well, yes, actually. Looking back, I can remember thinking "Wow! God must be really pleased with me to spend so much time and effort on my behalf!" And the truth is that yes, He IS really pleased with us....but not more than any other believer. And His gifts have absolutely NOTHING to do with ANYTHING accept Christ and His righteousness. But as new believers we can begin to talk ourselves into that lie.
So...... once God sees that we are sufficiently bonded to Him, He begins to withdraw His felt presence a bit, and the mountaintop we have been living on begins to descend into a valley. On the way down, the true condition of our hearts begins to show more and more. It's probably not as abrupt as being dropped on our butt, like it is in the film. But slowly, although we are still in sight of the mountaintop--which we had begun to think of as normal--we no longer experience the 'consolation' we had. The Ancients called this "Desolation"--going from the Mountain Top to the Desert. God has begun to wean us from the "bottle" of spiritual sweetness and ease, and we find that we aren't so spiritual as we had begun to think. Reading the Bible isn't such a thrill anymore. Prayer doesn't feel like sitting in God's lap. Listening to J. Vernon McGee has lost its meaningfulness. Going to church just isn't as exciting as the kids' soccer games.
The tendency is to panic. "Have I lost God?? Did He leave? Maybe I'm not doing enough!" For a time we may throw ourselves back into things with a fervor that surpasses what we actually did in the beginning. "Maybe if I just spend more time in the Word, the feeling will come back. Maybe if I pray more earnestly..maybe if I read more, do more, fellowship more...."
See how we are? We really thought WE were making it all happen!
Now nothing works. Instead, we don't like ourselves very much because we begin to see how shallow our Christianity was. "Maybe I was never saved at all! Maybe there isn't really a God after all--could I have been fooling myself all that time?"
That could start to feel like we'd been dropped on our butt. It could feel like God left the building.
But He didn't. He's still there.
Thomas Merton would even go so far as to say that God is now CLOSER to us than He was in the first place. Now it's time to get real with God:
Surrender our lives again. And again. And again. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.
This is the work of Christianity. Obedience. Surrender. Using the feet that God gave us to walk forward one step at a time in humility, counting on His Grace, and not our own strength. Go back to reading the Scripture, studying the Scripture, praying without ceasing, confessing our blunders (of which there will be many), running to the foot of the Cross for forgiveness and safety whenever we feel tempted to try harder to do things in our own strength.
No one ever said it would be easy. It's not. Read David's Psalms to see how David cried out to God. We can cry out in the same way, and God will answer us too. But Pastor Tony is right-- we don't get a free ride forever. We do end up with our butts in the sand and a challenge from Jesus to deny ourselves, and take up His Cross and follow Him. It happens to the best of us. It happens to all of us.
If you are not there yet, don't worry about it. Enjoy your Consolation, and share it with the rest of us! If you are there now, take heart--there will be glimpses of Glory along the journey, and when we are "purged" of ourselves enough, longer periods of Light. One day, nothing will be Dark anymore. Now there is some real, honest-to-goodness Hope!
And if you are feeling alone, powerless, ready to throw in the towel and slip back into the World's way of thinking and behaving.... give Pastor Tony, or Hank, or me a call. Don't just slip away. It's not pointless. In fact, THERE IS LOTS OF HOPE, based on fact and the experience of other believers. Get with another Christ-follower and begin to explore the Heart of God. He's waiting for you to accompany Him on the Journey of a Lifetime.
God is not someone who abandons us, but He does want us to walk forward with Him in faith. Early in our Christian walk, He encourages us, feeds us with the sweetness of the Spirit, gives us glimpses of what it will be like to be mature in the Spirit. We are all fired up, ready to change the world for Jesus!
Of course, we are not mature Christians at that stage, no matter what we might think. But everything to do with God is such a "rush" that we may think more highly of ourselves than we should. If you are reading this, it is probably because you have come through that stage of Christian growth and may be wondering what on earth happened??
You may have been involved in prayer times when people got healed, saved, had their lives turned around. You probably remember when you couldn't get enough of church--3 or 4 times a week was no problem at all! You may have read your Bible until it tattered, memorized whole passages of scripture, consumed large quantities of sermon material from the radio, bought lots of books online.... It was just one "high" after another!
The ancients called this phase of growth "Consolation". God consoles us, draws us near to Him, gives us sweet treats, lets us feel His presence. It's a time of bonding and closeness, similar to when we were newborn babies and our mother was there to meet our every need. We never want it to end! But in order to grow, it did end, and so it is must with God as well.
The problem with Consolation is that we can't see who we really are. We don't see the brash, self-important, prideful manner in which we operate. We actually begin to believe that God's outpourings to our souls have something to do with merit on our parts! Can you believe it?? Well, yes, actually. Looking back, I can remember thinking "Wow! God must be really pleased with me to spend so much time and effort on my behalf!" And the truth is that yes, He IS really pleased with us....but not more than any other believer. And His gifts have absolutely NOTHING to do with ANYTHING accept Christ and His righteousness. But as new believers we can begin to talk ourselves into that lie.
So...... once God sees that we are sufficiently bonded to Him, He begins to withdraw His felt presence a bit, and the mountaintop we have been living on begins to descend into a valley. On the way down, the true condition of our hearts begins to show more and more. It's probably not as abrupt as being dropped on our butt, like it is in the film. But slowly, although we are still in sight of the mountaintop--which we had begun to think of as normal--we no longer experience the 'consolation' we had. The Ancients called this "Desolation"--going from the Mountain Top to the Desert. God has begun to wean us from the "bottle" of spiritual sweetness and ease, and we find that we aren't so spiritual as we had begun to think. Reading the Bible isn't such a thrill anymore. Prayer doesn't feel like sitting in God's lap. Listening to J. Vernon McGee has lost its meaningfulness. Going to church just isn't as exciting as the kids' soccer games.
The tendency is to panic. "Have I lost God?? Did He leave? Maybe I'm not doing enough!" For a time we may throw ourselves back into things with a fervor that surpasses what we actually did in the beginning. "Maybe if I just spend more time in the Word, the feeling will come back. Maybe if I pray more earnestly..maybe if I read more, do more, fellowship more...."
See how we are? We really thought WE were making it all happen!
Now nothing works. Instead, we don't like ourselves very much because we begin to see how shallow our Christianity was. "Maybe I was never saved at all! Maybe there isn't really a God after all--could I have been fooling myself all that time?"
That could start to feel like we'd been dropped on our butt. It could feel like God left the building.
But He didn't. He's still there.
Thomas Merton would even go so far as to say that God is now CLOSER to us than He was in the first place. Now it's time to get real with God:
- Confess our spiritual pride ("I healed that person") and gluttony ("I want all the spiritual 'goodies' again).
- Remember that we are saved by His grace and not by our own efforts.
- Surrender the deception that we are powerful and in control, and let God have control.
Surrender our lives again. And again. And again. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.
This is the work of Christianity. Obedience. Surrender. Using the feet that God gave us to walk forward one step at a time in humility, counting on His Grace, and not our own strength. Go back to reading the Scripture, studying the Scripture, praying without ceasing, confessing our blunders (of which there will be many), running to the foot of the Cross for forgiveness and safety whenever we feel tempted to try harder to do things in our own strength.
No one ever said it would be easy. It's not. Read David's Psalms to see how David cried out to God. We can cry out in the same way, and God will answer us too. But Pastor Tony is right-- we don't get a free ride forever. We do end up with our butts in the sand and a challenge from Jesus to deny ourselves, and take up His Cross and follow Him. It happens to the best of us. It happens to all of us.
If you are not there yet, don't worry about it. Enjoy your Consolation, and share it with the rest of us! If you are there now, take heart--there will be glimpses of Glory along the journey, and when we are "purged" of ourselves enough, longer periods of Light. One day, nothing will be Dark anymore. Now there is some real, honest-to-goodness Hope!
And if you are feeling alone, powerless, ready to throw in the towel and slip back into the World's way of thinking and behaving.... give Pastor Tony, or Hank, or me a call. Don't just slip away. It's not pointless. In fact, THERE IS LOTS OF HOPE, based on fact and the experience of other believers. Get with another Christ-follower and begin to explore the Heart of God. He's waiting for you to accompany Him on the Journey of a Lifetime.
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