The gospel means little to so many because so few have passed through any dark night of the soul that would enable them to appreciate the light. Never having desperately desired deliverance, they have no depth of gratitude for forgiveness
Difficulty tests us. In times of ease, we think we know ourselves and we say what we believe in words that sound right to our own ears, but only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.
We don’t have the spiritual vision to see any more than the smallest fraction of God’s power; so we see very little of what could be ours if we truly sought Him. For the benefit of our praying, the “eyes” of our understanding need to be enlightened.
God not only loves us; He desires to be loved by us. What He seeks from us is perhaps best described by a word we don’t hear much anymore: adoration. Our praise grows toward perfection when the King before whom we bow is also the Father whom we love.
Worship deficient in either spirit or truth is something less than true worship. But God must still be worshiped. Intellectual truth and emotional desire can carry us only so far. At some point, a commitment must be made, and kept diligently.
Made in the image of a God who is perfect love, we flourish only when we love Him rightly. If we fail to do so, we may still know some sort of love in this world, but it will be our undoing. “Love is the fire of life; it either consumes or purifies.”
What does it mean to pursue the love of Christ? More than our pursuing Him, it means allowing ourselves to be pursued by Him. It’s the choice to accept His benevolent will, ceasing to run away from the great love that He has desired to give us.
The God who calls us to repentance is calling us simply to let go of the “useless things” that have been holding us back. The things we’re asked to leave out of our lives are merely our liabilities, things that in the long run can only hurt us.
If we are to make any worthwhile progress, we must deal with our daily decisions straightforwardly. If they seem difficult this morning, they will be more so this afternoon — and by this evening, they may have become practically impossible.
When it comes to God, there is no safe territory between love and hatred. Halfheartedness is simply one form of hatred, and it is the most repulsive to God. For this reason, Jesus wishes to disturb us. “I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”
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