If investments in our spiritual lives don’t require us to give up anything of real value to us, they aren’t really investments and the results won’t be worth very much. In the end, God’s value to us will be indicated by what we’ve exchanged for Him.
If we frequently experience either anger or anxiety, it is probably time to ask ourselves whether it is really our Father whom we are seeking. We must have the honesty to admit how often emotions like these are the result of frustrated self-seeking.
The God who created us said, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord.”
Jesus did not say that He taught the way to God. He claimed to BE the way. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).
The horrors that some have suffered in this world are truly profound. But compared to the glory, our sufferings are small. And not only that, but compared to the “eternal” nature of the glory, our sufferings are only “for a moment.”
The enemy has not so marred the world of God’s creation that there are not many fine treasures left: wonderful things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. These we must seek out and learn to enjoy reflecting on.
David invites us to experience God’s goodness firsthand. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” We can debate the theoretical pros and cons of divine goodness for months and not learn as much about it as in one day of actual walking with God.
On the farm, what we “reap” is in proportion to how bountifully we have “sown.” We should not be surprised that this principle is also valid in the spiritual realm, a realm where the consequences happen to be much greater because they are eternal.
The possibility that we may not have the “heart” to understand what God wishes to say is a frightening prospect. But our hearts are not predetermined or ruined beyond repair. Any of us can decide to have a heart that is true.
We must recognize God as the ultimate source of wisdom. In a secular culture that extols the unaided efforts of our own understanding, it goes against the popular grain to defer to the wisdom of our Creator. But that is precisely what we must do.
