Sunday, August 3, 2014

God and Our Daily Disciplines

Most of my life I've found it difficult to balance two extremes of thinking about God's role in our lives. On one end, we know that prayer, scripture, attending church, and many other practices of our faith are incredibly important in our walk with the Lord. However, it becomes unhealthy to think that God punishes us for not doing them, or that the cause of our problems and stresses is a direct result of us "not reading our Bible daily."

The simplest explanation I've arrived at is the following analogy: Suppose a friend designs and builds me a special computer that I use regularly. Like all technology, it tends to have it's quirks and bad moments. My friend recommends I stay in regular contact with him so that he can help me keep the computer working well. This doesn't mean that things will always run perfectly simply because of our regular communication with him. It also doesn't mean that this friend causes the problems with our computer because we are not in communication with him, as if to punish me. It's for my benefit! However, it is silly for me to be upset or disappointed when things go wrong with the computer if I'm not following his advice or communicating with him.

Likewise, when we aren't working on our relationship with the Lord, our trials are not punishment for the absence of scripture, prayer, or church. Still, it is silly for us to expect our lives, which are created by him, to be full of his clear presence when we are not seeking his presence.

God certainly works for our good even when we forsake him, which we do regularly. Still, scripture is clear that seeking him out has some correlation with his work in our lives. I'd prefer my sorrows to be validated in light of a current walk with the Lord, rather than realizing I'm expecting my best friend to be handling my problems when I don't attend to our friendship (which he'll still attend to regardless).

Ultimately, don't shame yourself for not involving yourselves in the Christian disciplines, but do them in response to the truths of God's love and works on our behalf. If you get things out of order, placing those acts (prayer/scripture/church/etc) before the blessings and works of Christ, you'll be living in a miserable, works-based faith, rather than one reliant on God's mercy. All your works and worship are meant to be nothing more than a response to God's love, glory, justice, and mercy.

Yet, he is your best friend. Where all others fail you, he never gives up. If you seek to truly love, you never will without his help. If you seek to return love to those who love you, you owe him infinitely times more love. Don't be ashamed of your failure, but you break his heart constantly and yet he still loves you. So respond to his love with obedience to his love.