Getting to Know God His Way, By Faith
By Patrick Roberts
We'll be on our way to becoming a spiritual people when we can
joyfully accept those characteristics of God that are designed
to remain out of our intellectual reach for the rest of our
earth-bound lives.
We honor God best when we relate to Him by faith. There is no
other way for us little people to embrace God's greatness except
by faith. Practically speaking, this means we can't have
anything to do with God unless He teaches us about Himself. We
cannot look him up in the local yellow pages. Even the most
advanced institute of higher learning cannot convey the
mysteries of God in Christ. But God will teach us about Himself
His Way.
Part of the genius of faith is that it minimizes men and
maximizes God.
Men see what they want and expect to simply "arrive" at that end
product by whatever way seems most expedient. However such
shortsightedness is a fundamental motive for sin. God cares more
about how things are done more than what can be done.
God-pleasing faith consists of much more than perceiving our
arrival point so we can "beam ourselves up" to that point. He
designed us to be motivated by something greater than some
shallow desire to "arrive."
Such is the beauty of God's grace and wisdom, that He creates
humans to be more than errand-runners. God made it possible for
us human beings, made of dust, living in a world made of dust,
to perceive something better than dust. That "something better"
is heavenly significance in Christ.
Will magically transporting ourselves away from the daily grind
facilitate our end goal, which is God's kingdom on earth? No.
But rather Christ demonstrates His Divinity by using our
everyday situations for His heavenly goals. He uses us even
while we inhabit these shells of flesh amidst this sin-polluted
earth . The odds are so stacked against us so heavily that, if
we are ever used for spiritual gain, then this can only be a
result of Christ's greatness.
We might expect God to snap His fingers and instantly accomplish
His every whim just to get things over with. But His grace
accomplishes more than just plucking us out of the world so we
can sit on a cloud with a pair wings, a white robe and a halo.
Such is the surprising depth of His genius and grace that He
uses formerly lost people to seek and save that which is still
lost. In this way, Christ is continually demonstrating His
victory over sin.
The Spirit of Christ is encouraging His seekers to "arrive" in
Him right now, wherever they are.
We will honor God best by trusting Him here and now. We will
obey Him best by taking in His grace each day, rain or shine. We
will worship God most substantially by determining to enjoy Him
in whatever capacity He makes Himself available.
At the end of the day we should praise Him for refusing to
accept anything less than perfect, heavenly quality. We should
admire His wisdom for requiring such unattainable excellence and
radical purity, such that no mortal could ever manufacture on
his own.
Some might ask, "How can we make spiritual realities work for
us?" The obvious answer is that we cannot do anything spiritual
on our own. What good is this answer? It should lead us to
listen to Christ and embrace our realistically humble place in
His kingdom. We do well to embrace who God is in relation to who
we are (or what we are not) so we can sincerely fall down on our
faces before Him.
As for us church-saturated Americans, we might expect our
religious concoctions to magically accomplish our spiritual
responsibilities for us. But these things by themselves cannot
begin to accomplish anything in God's estimation. Therefore it
remains for us to give up our fleshly thinking in favor of
becoming a spiritual people.
Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people
to Jesus Christ.
Find additional resources at
www.BooksByPatrick.com and www.KoGmedia.com
