Month: June 2018

If you are a person of faith, do you really need MORE of God?

 

I am all for spiritual experiences but theologically the truth is that we already have all we need. The apostle Paul once wrote a letter to some people living in the city of Corinth who were always after MORE (especially supernatural experiences!) and said, “Everything belongs to you!” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23). All we need is already ours – right now, not one day in the future. In the same way, Jesus placed the words, "Everything I have is yours", in the mouth of the father speaking to his oldest son who had failed to embrace the concept of underserved grace (Luke 15:31). We don’t need more of God, we just need to enjoy and experience what we already have available to us through his extravagant generosity.

 

Years ago I would find myself saying familiar prayers such as, "Jesus, please be with us today." What's funny about that is that some of Jesus' last words spoken on earth were, "I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). So the truth is he is already with me and has promised to be with me until the world ends, which it hasn't yet. So it's actually silly to ask him to do what he is already doing! A better prayer is, "Jesus, thank you that you are with me today."

 

Another prayer I often said while leading church meetings was, "Isn't it good to be in God's presence today." The obvious question is, "Where were we yesterday?" Does God live in the church building waiting and hoping we will come and visit him every week!? Of course not, God is 'omni-present'. He is everywhere at once. There is no where you can go where he is not already there. We don't lack God's presence or need more of it. What we lack is awareness. We need to wake up to the reality that God is with us all the time.

 

We also don't need MORE of God's love. What we need to do is accept and experience the great love he already has for us. 

 

The old legalistic, religious, rules-based mode of living is all about 'DO and LIVE'. If you do the right thing, be a good person, try to keep all the rules, then God will love you and bless you. The new grace-based way of living is to 'LIVE and DO'. You ARE already loved - just as you are. You don't need to DO anything to earn or deserve it. Your just need to accept it and live in it. Grace like this is still amazing. What a difference that makes! We then seek to do the right thing, not in order to be loved by God but because we already are. 

I still remember holding our firstborn son in my arms – Josiah. I was so excited to be a dad and as I held him I thought about how much I loved him. You could take my car or my house or my job, but don't take my boy. He was worth more than anything else to me. Then I thought about WHY I loved him. He hadn't DONE anything yet. He hadn't made a goal in a sports game, scored an 'A' on a test, or made any money. In fact, it cost us a heap of money just to get him there! I loved him NOT because he had done anything but only because he was my child – nothing else. If I as a flawed, imperfect human parent feel that about my children, how do you think God feels about you!

 

We also don't need MORE of God's power. The Spirit who God gives us provides us with all the power, love and wisdom we need for living each day.

 

 

Like a bank account with a huge supply of resources, it’s all there … ready for you draw upon it. Simply thank God for his provision and ask for an appropriation in your life of what has already been provided for you. All the courage, strength, wisdom and faith you need for today is already available to you. Yes, ask him for it … but most importantly thank him for it. 

 

Everything is yours! Enjoy it … with great gratitude to the Gracious Giver of all good gifts.

 

 

As human beings, we are designed for relationship. No one is meant to do life 'alone'. We are all better off when we are connected with other people. It's part of our inner need to belong. Of course, experiencing a sense of belonging takes effort and time (the very word "belong" comes from two words "be … long"). It also requires a degree a compatibility, common interest, shared values and trust. 

 

Our relationships can be seen as occurring in a series of concentric and widening circles.

 

1. The crowd. We all know and connect to hundreds and even thousands of people in our lifetime. This includes the many casual interactions we have – at home, at school, at work, out shopping and in various groups we may be a part of (sport, church, community organisations).

 

2. Acquaintances. These are the people we know by name and have some history with.

 

3. Casual Friends. These are people we hang out with from time to time. We know more about them, and have more shared experiences. 

 

4. Close Friends. These are the few people we spend the majority of our time with. We have common interests and a closer heart connection with them. There is also a mutual replenishment that comes from the interaction because both people are contributing, rather than one person always taking the lead to initiate things or ask all the questions. Your time with each other could be described as energising, rather than draining. 

 

Jesus himself loved the crowd, had many acquaintances, yet had 70 people who he spent more time with and out of which he had 12 close friends, three of whom were his best friends. Yes, relationships are ‘spatial’ or defined by different degrees of proximity. 

 

Being friendly and outgoing is an important part of living together as humans. Every person we meet is a potential friend (whether casual or close), and should be treated as such – with worth and value.

 

But do we really need MORE relationships? Like a LEGO block, we all have different capacities for connection. If you have no friends, you have ample space for more relationships and would benefit from making an effort to meet and get to know more people. In contrast, if your LEGO block is full, you don't really have the capacity to take on a heap of new relationships. 

 

Maybe it is time to evaluate and do a 'relational stocktake'. Otherwise, we end up continually 'skimming' with a large group of casual friends but never really going deep with any of them. We are always in a hurry and end up relating superficially. I know this feeling, especially having been part of a church with thousands of people for so many years. 

 

Many friendships can be work or career based (just like school friends). When we stop working together we discover there’s not much left to the relationship. Or maybe you recently moved house or started to attend a different church or social group. As a result, your friendships change.

 

I was born in Melbourne, Australia but moved to the USA when I was 10 years old. I lived there until I was 18 when our family returned to Australia. Moving at age 10 was an adventure while returning at 18 was much harder as I had an established network of friends. I kept in touch with some friends in the USA but gradually lost touch with most. They were part of my past but not part of my future. It was a time to start again and make new acquaintances, some of whom gradually became close friends. 

 

This is just part of how life works. You are no longer in the same environment or context and so it tends to be ‘out of sight out of mind’, unless there is intentional and mutual effort to continue the relationship and sow into new areas of commonality. Otherwise, everyone simply gets on with their own life.

 

Could life be better for you through spending more quality time with fewer people – your family and the friends that mean the most to you at this time in your life? 

 

[See also my BLOG posts about Connecting with People]

 

Next: Do You Really Need MORE of God?

 

My dad used to say, "The reward of work well done is more work!" How true is that.

 

Making a contribution is an important part of being human and adding value to society. We were created for meaningful work. But when is enough enough? There are many other important aspects of life other than work. No one on their death bed wished they spent more time at the office!

 

I love work. So much so that I clearly have workaholic tendencies. I can become so absorbed in what I am doing that I keep going and going, attacking that endless task list and never ever feeling like I am done. As a result, I have had to deal with burnout due to my failure to draw necessary boundaries and through neglecting the Sabbath principle of rest.

 

In early Jewish history, they actually killed you if you worked on the Sabbath day! The weekly day of rest was that sacred. Nowadays, we just kill ourselves … by never stopping and continually being on the go, addicted to our work. 

 

This message is not for everyone. Some people need to get off their backsides and get to work. Laziness is just a big of an issue in society as workaholism. But for those of us who love our work, there are dangers in the air. 

 

So, do you really need MORE work?

 

Take a moment to read the story of the fisherman … and think about what you really want out of life.

 

Next: Part 6 – Do You Really Need MORE Relationships?