Life before an Audience of One

I’ve been reading The Attributes of God Vol.1 by Tozer while in the PR this past week. For a couple days I’ve been meditating on the Immensity of God. There’s a small section in the chapter that brought me back to why I seek the face of the Lord.

God made only you in His image and you’re stuck with it, sinner and Christian both. You’re made in the image of God, and nothing short of God will satisfy you. And even if you happen to be one of those “nickel-in-the-slot, get saved to escape hell and take heaven” Christians (that poor little kindergarten view of heaven), remember one thing---even you will find over the years that you are not content with “things plus God.” You’ll have to have God minus all things.
…But as soon as I set my hopes and comforts upon things and people, I’ll lose something out of my heart. It dare not be things and God, it dare not be people and God: it must be God and nothing else. Then whatever else God gives us, we can hold at arm’s length and hold it dear for Jesus’ sake. And we can love it for His sake, but it is not necessary to our happiness. If there’s anything necessary to your eternal happiness but God, you’re not yet the kind of Christian that you ought to be. For only God is the true rest.

So often the relationship that should be God and then things becomes “things plus God”. Especially in this time in history where our society is so materialistic; God is easily put on the back burner. It hurts my heart to go to church’s and hear “consumer Christianity” preached. Isn’t it time that we stop lusting after the desires of the flesh and the things of this world and desire the one thing that will only satisfy?

If you notice, even when we have “things”, we still desire more. This leads to covetousness, greed and other perversities of the heart. It’s because the void you’re trying to fill can only be filled with the pleasures of loving God. You were created to fellowship with and gaze upon a beautiful God. And until it becomes God and then things, you will always desire more things.

The Bible addresses this issue in a few places (more than I have included here):

Matthew 5:6 (NKJV) 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
John 4:14 (NKJV) 14but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Isaiah 55:1-2 (NKJV) 1“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) 33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness , and all these things shall be added to you.
Matthew 22:37 (NKJV) 37 Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 “This is the first and great commandment.

And when we come to Him, and put Him first, He takes pleasure in us. We’re satisfied and happy. He’s happy. It’s all mutual happiness!

Back to Tozer’s thoughts.

God takes great pleasure in having a helpless soul come to Him simply and plainly and intimately. He takes pleasure in having us come to Him. This kind of Christianity doesn’t draw big crowds. It only draws those who have their hearts set on God, who want God more than they want anything else in the world. These people want the spiritual experience that comes from knowing God for Himself. They could have everything stripped away from them and still have God.
These people are not vastly numerous in any given locality. This kind of Christianity doesn’t draw big crowds, but it is likely to draw the hungriest ones, the thirstiest ones and some of the best ones. And so God takes great pleasure in having helpless people come to Him, simply and plainly and intimately. He wants us to come without all that great overloading of theology. He wants us to come as simply and as plainly as a little child. And if the Holy Spirit touches you, you’ll come like that.

The hunger and thirst that we have for God is our gift within. It’s God’s gift to mankind to hunger for more of Him. Tozer once said “To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.” Though He satisfies, there is still the hunger of more. This is because you can never exhaust the being of God. I suppose that could fall under the Infinitude of God, which shall be saved for another post.:)

So I seek to have a relationship that is always God and then things. I know in my heart that “things” won’t satisfy so I continue to pursue the one thing that does satisfy. God Himself!

Posted by Camillia on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 at 1:12 p.m. | Permalink