Hot Pursuit or Cool Passivity?
If I were to ask you to describe your relationship to God, how would you describe it? What words would you use? What picture would you create? I think if we were honest, many of us would have to describe the Lord as more of an acquaintance rather than a deep and abiding friend. It is an incontrovertible fact that some Christians seem to experience a much closer intimacy, a much closer relationship with God than others. They appear to enjoy a reverent familiarity with Him that is foreign to some of us. Is it a matter of favoritism or whim on the part of God or do such people qualify in some way for that close friendship with God?
Here’s what I believe the Scripture teaches: As believers, we determine the closeness to God that we enjoy. In other words, we are at this moment as close to God as we really choose to be. It is we who settle for less with God, not Him. Everything in our Christian life and service flows from our relationship with God. If we are not in vital fellowship with Him, everything else will be out of focus.
I have been checking out the life of Moses and his role in leading the people of Israel. Moses was a guy who understood the vital nature of fellowship with God. Check out these verses from Exodus 33: “Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.” (Exo 33:7-11)
Did you see it? Moses went out from the camp of the Israelites to set up a tent that was called the Tent of Meeting. The presence of God would fall on that tent much like a pillar of cloud coming down from Heaven when Moses would go out to meet with the Lord, and Moses and God would commune together. Can you imagine what that must have been like? It’s sad to notice that everyone else would stay off at a distance and watch what was going on from their tent doors trying to worship from afar. But not Moses. He pursued God. He set his tent to meet with Him face to face. He went out of His everyday routine to meet with God. He didn’t just pray to God on his way to work, he didn’t just pray to God as he was washing the dishes. He didn’t just pray to God in his extra spare time. Moses pursued God.
As a parent, I know that I need to spend time with my kids, to pursue my relationship with them. Our ongoing relationship depends on us spending some time together, talking, listening, playing, and enjoying one another. I know how important it is to take time to play ball with Sam or go fishing with Jake, to mess around with John-John, to sing to my daughter Cami, and to wrestle with Gabe (he usually wins). If I didn’t spend my time in this way, I wouldn’t know my own children and my children would not know me. Similarly, as a husband, I know that I need to spend time with Gretchen. Our deepening relationship depends on us taking time to talk and to listen and to be honest with one another, to communicate intimately and share life together. Now, if my earthly relationships are dependent upon the time and effort that I put into those relationships, how much more is my spiritual relationship with God! And so, as a Christian, I know that I need to spend time, a quiet time, an intimate worship time, alone with God. My deepening relationship with God depends upon it.
Calvin Miller, one of my favorite profs in seminary has made the observation that one of the most prevalent, deepest, and almost imperceptible sins that we commit is that we seek to maintain our relationship with God rather than pursue it. I believe many of us are far too passive in our relationship with God. We assume it’s God’s job to pursue us, not ours to pursue Him. And make no mistake about it–God does pursue us. None of us would be members of God’s family if it weren’t for the initiative He took in drawing us to Himself. But divine initiative does not preclude human initiative. God honors those whose hearts are not satisfied with the spiritual status quo and who, in an effort to dispel the coldness and darkness that so easily sets in, plead with God to reveal Himself and cry out for greater intimacy with Him.
Admission to the inner circle of friendship with God is the outcome of deep desire. Only those that count such friendship a prize worth sacrificing everything else for are likely to attain it. If other friendships are more desirable to us, we will not gain entry into that circle. We are now, and we will be in the future, only as intimate with God as we really choose to be.
Great first blog!
Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
To grow closer we must draw near!
God will reward those who faithfully “Pursue” Him!
Wow, I never thought of maintaining our relationship with God instead of pursuing it a sin. Father, please forgive me for maintaining at times. I choose to pursue! Thanks for the insight Pastor Nick.
Excellent point. It seems that we all get to a time in our life were we become comfortable with the maintenance of our faith and families. Its easy to fall into a trap of not wanting more, but as you show we need to be a little uncomfortable and commit to deepen our relationship with God. The choice is ours, Thank You for the perspective.
wow…so true…and to quote eddie, if i may, “in order to walk on water, you must get out of the boat”
we need to be like peter when he walked on the water…we can’t expect christ to come to us all the time, he does come to us, but we still must pursue him…how are we to walk on the water and walk toward christ unless we get out of the boat.
and along those lines, once we get out and start going toward god, how do we keep from sinking?…we need to continually focus on god and all of his glory
i’m glad you put this out there nick, it’s good to hear that we need to pursue god…it’s a two way relationship, we can’t expect god to do all of the work…we need to go toward him
We are told to deny ourself, take up our cross and follow him. If we are not at that point in our walk is that not being disobedient? Disobedience to God’s commands IS sin. We must be living sacrifices. God does not seek us out to be his close friend, we have to seek him. “seek and you will find.”,”knock and the door will be opened.”, it seems so easy huh? This simple act I believe is one of the toughest leaps of faith that a young christian can make. It is like you said last Wednesday Nick, our sanctification is an on-going process. We were free from our sin at the moment of Christ’s sacrifice. That does not mean that sin has disappeared from our lives. As you said also “We are fighting a Civil war inside of us.” We are all forgiven but if we do not abide in Christ, I believe we are commiting a sin. Untill we take up our cross we will never be free from that sin.
Today I was reading “Our Daily Bread”. It describes what an Awesome God we have and a true meaning of the word “awesome”.
As I read Psalm 47, I saw “Awesome God” and thanked Him for our Praise and Worship services - our way of praising a truly Awesome God!
God Bless,
Wes