Whatever I may have written on the doctrine of salvation I believe to be true and of value for those who are interested theologically, but I’m not sure that it has any value for the ordinary confused folk in the church. Predestination, election has everyone guessing and although it is of value, unless we understand God’s position in time and space we will be forever at sea.
God wants us to know that he loves us and is interested in our salvation. How he effects that salvation is of no real consequence to us. We need to know that he draws us to him because he first loved us, somehow against our will we mysteriously respond to his presence and by the working of the Holy Spirit we are drawn to him.
What God really wants from us is a relationship with Him. He wants our affection, our love and to share our joy and sadness. He doesn’t want us on a Sunday only, he wants us to experience His love on Monday at the office, doing our chores at home, making that line call at tennis, or missing that 6 foot putt to lose the game.
How do we respond to God when he sometimes is so far away? How do we experience his love? Is it only in our imagination, or is it real? When I have my quiet time I find that I struggle with this question. I know my love for him is very real and the only thing that makes it possible to believe in a real love relationship with God is my faith that comes by grace – and that sometimes is wonky.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good”, writes the psalmist, God does not lie, he wants us to believe him. He wants us to experience him tangibly. This is a call from God to us, to understand that he is not interested in what we can do for him; he is not interested in our money or our often shabby worship when we mouth words that we don’t even mean.
He really wants the only thing that only we can give him – our love, and he wants it all the time and he wants it to grow stronger every day!
No comments:
Post a Comment