Sports announcer Bob Costas once said, “We are beaten only when we quit believing in what we wish we could be.” If this is true in athletic endeavor, it’s even more true in our godly endeavors. We dare not give up the godly dreams we have.
While we are busy wishing we could serve God within the framework of someone else’s circumstances, He is no doubt saying to every one of us individually: “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”
If we’re praying to be anything other than the unique package of problems and possibilities that we are, that’s a prayer that can’t be answered. The sooner we give up on that false hope, the sooner we can concentrate on God’s plan for our own lives.
We make two mistakes regarding mercy: we suppose that God extends His mercy to those who deserve it and withholds it from those who don’t, or that after receiving God’s forgiveness we are somehow more deserving in His sight than we were before.
When we have let go of our illusions, that is when God is able to redeem us from our reality. There is no other way for the gospel to save us. We must realize that we are ruined. “How else but through a broken heart may the Lord Christ enter in?”
Although we naturally prefer to dwell on God’s mercy, it is the wretchedness of our plight without God that makes His mercy meaningful. We can’t enjoy the latter very deeply if we haven’t thought about the former very honestly.
Minds that do not normally think of God at other times will find it hard to stay focused on Him during occasional periods of prayer. Thus it will help us, when we are praying, to be people who are accustomed to living prayerfully.
The modern tendency to turn worship into something that is naturally enjoyable, and even entertaining, shouldn’t blind us to the fact that true worship is the spiritual adoration of God, a thing that does not come naturally to carnally-minded people.
If we hope to be freed from our bondage, we must be honest about where we are. Even if we’re seeking God right now, our seeking may be more about what we want than about what He wants. There are few of us who don’t need to repent of that.
God is lovingly concerned about our brokenness. He knows we are “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” At great cost, He has made it possible for us to seek Him, find Him, and find in Him every bit of the wholeness we have lost.