Day: January 13, 2012

Have You Ever Been Alone with God? Part 1

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Oswald Chambers 90x115by Oswald Chambers

When they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples —Mark 4:34

Our Solitude with Him. Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage?

Stopping Short of God

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Vance Havner 90x115by Vance Havner

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” Psalm 63:1

Any spiritual exercise that stops short of God Himself stops far too short. We can become taken up with the means and forget the end. Our Bible reading may bring us profit and we may lay down the Book with a comfortable sense of duty well performed, but does the heart say, “Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord”? Prayer is but a means to an end: we may get a secret satisfaction out of praying that makes prayer only an end in itself. “Early will I seek thee” – that is true prayer. “Now thee alone I seek, give what is best.” Faith has no value save as it links us with God. Yet we often become taken up with our faith and miss God entirely.

Feelings, experiences, meditation, reading, church attendance, with all these we may stop short of God, finding some satisfaction but letting the good rob us of the best – Himself. The Psalmist said, “My soul thirsteth…my flesh longeth for thee.” Only God can meet the need of the whole man.

by Vance Havner