Beside
the Well
Last year I read Relationships, a
Mess Worth Making by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp. It is a good book on
facing and working through difficult relationships and the importance of
dealing in a healthy way with issues that arise in order to come out with a
good marriage and some friends in life.
The authors wrote, “The reality our imagination embraces is the reality we will
live by.”* To me, these are just words that paraphrase Proverbs 23:7
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” No real depth of
knowledge here, but it did spur me to think about what reality was governing my
life.
There are quizzes you can take that claim they reveal your opinion of
God. When I take them they usually reveal I believe God has better things
to do than attend to me. I seem to view Him as a distant, but loving
Father who only comes when I call. We could surmise I had an absentee
father. I did not. He came home from work every night for supper
and was there at the breakfast table every morning. We did loads of
hobbies and fun things together. Valuable time could be wasted on getting
to the bottom of my thoughts here, but the bottom is exactly where it would
bring us, so let’s move on.
I know God is not actually passive, but am I living as if He were? Are my
imaginations causing me to live outside truth?
The
authors went on to say, “If we are not captured by the truth of living in a
deeply personal relationship with God, we will shrink our expectations and
dreams down to the size of our own selfish wants, desires, and strategies.” **
What? If I leave God as passive I will be living below God’s desire for
my life? I’m living selfishly and independently? It isn’t a matter of
thinking I am being humble or meek, but a lack of faith and trust, a lack of a
fully developed relationship? That’s not what I want. I don’t want
to shrink God down to fit my tiny life.
They didn’t leave it there. “Their view of God’s passivity was a
principal ingredient in their abiding hopelessness.” ***
Oh, wow! That is what I often feel—hopeless. I hear my inner voice
saying, “You are a waste of time. All you try to achieve is just
senseless activity. No one really cares about the things you care about.”
I struggle to stay out of that pit! I even have strategies for climbing
out!
I stared at the page and tried to imagine life in a deeply personal
relationship. I don’t have many of those with which to compare. I
came to realize nearly all of my relationships are passive and
distant.
“Exactly.” I heard the Spirit say. “You keep yourself at a
distance. Why not just open up and allow room for your Heavenly Father to
love you, accept you, and create a new image in your mind? One that will
give you the ability to love others more deeply and bring greater value to your
life?”
On my knees I went confessing my tiny estimation of God and seeking forgiveness
for inhibiting His Spirit and keeping Him at a distance.
Then, God flooded my heart with more truth. He works for me, for my good,
continually. He is the lifter up of my head. With Him, all things
are possible. Hope filled my heart and I went away with a renewed passion
and a start on a deeper and more personal relationship with my Heavenly Father.
What about you? Do you view God is distant and passive? Do you
often feel hopeless? Do you spiritually live on your own and only call on
God when you can’t figure things out for yourself?
He invites you to a personal relationship.
Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great
and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
Jeremiah 29:13 “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me
with all your heart.”
Acts17:27 “That they should seek the
Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far
from every one of us.”
Lane, Tim S. and Tripp, Paul, Relationships:
A Mess Worth Making, New Growth Press, 2006, Grand Rapids, MI
*page 161
**page 161
***page 162
No comments:
Post a Comment