We were doing a Bible Study at our church mums' group the other week about how our salvation is a gift from God which He wants us to receive gratefully but without feeling like we have to 'earn it back' or 'do something in return'. The culture in which we live here is a bit like that. At first we just thought people were extremely generous, bringing gifts of food and toys and clothing for the children whenever they came round; and they are very generous people, especially considering how little they have, I don't want to diminish that. However, it didn't take us long to realise that there was an expectation in return that, as part of their wider 'family', we would be there for them when they needed something, like borrowing money, or giving a lift in the car somewhere. God's gift of eternal life, however, has no strings attached, and there's nothing we could ever do to pay Him back for it.
However, I digress. What struck me as I was reading the Scripture passages which talked about this subject was the implication that 'just believing' is also something you work for. Don't build on sand, build on rock. Don't store up treasures on earth, store up treasures in heaven. Don't work for food that spoils, work for food that lasts. Make every effort to be holy. 'Build', 'work', 'store', 'make' - they're all active verbs, not passive ones. What particularly struck me was in John 6:27-29 where Jesus says 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent'. Now maybe He was just drawing a comparison and I'm reading too much into it, but I did get to thinking that perhaps I need to 'work' harder at believing.
There's a temptation to get a bit lazy about faith, and just have a 'let go and let God' attitude, but with any relationship, of course, our relationship with our Heavenly Father needs constant tending to if it's going to grow. I was challenged that afternoon to make more effort not just to get to know God better in my Quiet Times but to work harder at believing - believing that God is always present with me, in His character, in who Jesus is, in God's promises to me, in what He says about me...
These past couple of weeks I've seen my early morning alone times with God as an absolute priority. I need to give more of my time and energy and effort if I'm to live a more joyful and abundant life in the Lord Jesus, which, ironically (and I love it that life in Jesus is filled with ironies like this) will mean that my normal daily life will seem less demanding on my time, energy and effort. I need to actively fill my thoughts with heavenly things and not earthly things during the day. I need to be more mindful of God's presence, more spontaneous in prayer and worship. These things are not natural to me, but I trust that as I work at them there will be great rewards. I have already seen rewards. It’s amazing how much more smoothly my day goes, how less irritating the children are, how much more time I seem to have on my hands if I’ve spent some time that morning worshipping and talking to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment