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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Pastoral Ponderings ~ Seeking God With All of my Emptiness

          There are a variety of expressions in God’s word that call us to do something with all our heart, soul, and mind. A particular favorite that ministered to me during a very difficult season of life was this: “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”[1] Another well-known encouragement is when God tells his people: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”[2] And then, one of the most famous, is when Jesus answered the question about the greatest commandment of all. He said, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”[3]

          When people hear that God calls us to seek after him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, they interpret this based on their worldview. A works-based worldview thinks of this quite differently than a grace-based worldview. Can I explain the difference? Why, yes, thank you for asking.

          The world lives by a works-based worldview. Everything to do with participating in events is based on the quality of our performance. Any thought of “giving it your all” means trying your best, working your hardest, giving it your best effort. Whether it is in an Olympic event, or a popular talent competition, “give it your best shot,” means, summon together all the talent, charisma, strength, emotion, personality and character you have within you, and express it with one hundred percent of your effort.

          When people bring this worldview into the church, or interpret their hearing of the word of God through this filter, they inadvertently misunderstand what it means to seek God with all their being. They think that God wants them to try harder, to do their best, to give it their best shot; in other words, to perform. I suggest that many people have become disillusioned about participating in the family of God for the simple reason that they concluded that they simply didn’t have what it takes to keep up to God’s expectations.

          On the other hand, the Church lives by quite a different worldview. By the Church, I do not mean what we may have experienced of particular religious institutions that have the word “church” in their title. I mean what the Bible describes as the Church that Jesus is building, the Church that worships God in spirit and in truth,[4] the Church that is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,”[5] of which Jesus declared that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [6]

          In Jesus’ church, the call of the gospel is of grace, not of works.[7] We do not come into God’s family by giving it our best shot. We do not jump through hoops, or finish first, or perform better than others. We are brought into God’s family by grace, through faith, and receive the rights of the children of God as a free gift, simple as that.[8]

          So, when the Bible tells us to do something with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, it is not describing us giving our fullness to God, but giving our emptiness to God. The religious leaders who gave such duty and diligence to keeping the law of God were not loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. They simply couldn’t love God to the full when they were so full of themselves!

          On the other hand, prostitutes heard the gospel, repented of their sin, turned to Jesus Christ by faith, and received the forgiveness of their sins. So did those wicked tax collectors, and those God-dishonoring drunks. Sinners of all kinds were drawn to Jesus, the very Son of God come in the flesh, because they saw in him a life-giving, hope-building, faith-instilling difference between him and the religious leaders.

          What they saw in Jesus was grace. Not a grace that tolerated their sin, but a grace that came to deliver them from sin and welcome them into the kingdom of heaven. They realized that loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength was impossible to do with their own effort. Instead, they would do it with their emptiness.

          In other words, they would not invite Jesus into a heart that was decorated with all manner of their own personal achievements and say that they were loving him with all their heart because they were showing how good they could be for him. Rather, they were showing that they were loving Jesus with all their heart by inviting him into an empty room that hungered and thirsted for him to fill every single little nook and cranny of their inner being.

          Or, in other words (again), their emptiness that wanted Jesus to be the one who filled them up was the most whole-hearted love anyone could experience. The little lamb who just wanted to be with his shepherd wherever he went, is the one who loves God with all his heart, while the self-dependent wolf that tries to win God’s approval with good works has a heart so full of self-love that there is no room left to love God at all.

          While I could go on and on about this, with more explanations and illustrations of the freedom of loving God out of all of a heart that is empty of self, and wants only to be filled up with God’s presence, I will leave this with you in the hope that you will find rest for your soul by letting your emptiness “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” When our whole, empty inner-being hungers for the fullness of Christ, we shall be satisfied”.[9]

          The conclusion of that matter is this: instead of feeling discouraged that you have nothing to give God, love God from your emptiness that adores your big brother Jesus for having everything to give you. The sinful woman who came to Jesus under the scorn of the religious elite has been honored for twenty centuries as one who “loved much”.[10] She did not come as an expression of how much she had to give Jesus, but as an expression of how much her empty heart had been filled with his love for her that it now overflowed with infectious love for him.

          When we come to Jesus in this way, as the poor in spirit who receive the kingdom of heaven, as those who mourn their sinful emptiness and are comforted by the overwhelming grace of God, as those who meekly acknowledge their inability to save themselves and so, by faith, become the heirs of salvation, and as those whose empty hearts hunger and thirst for the righteousness that is offered to them as a free gift and so are finally satisfied in that way that any amount of self-effort and worldly performance could never provide, we will discover the rest Jesus promised to those who would come to him by faith, take upon ourselves the yoke of salvation, and learn to walk with him in step with his Holy Spirit.

          It is these empty-hearted people who are filled with the Holy Spirit who love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, because now their prideful little selves have been moved out of the way, and God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit make their home where, surprisingly, there is now room for them to stay.[11]

          From my heart,

          Monte

 

© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)



[1] Deuteronomy 4:29
[2] Jeremiah 29:13
[3] Mark 12:30
[4] God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
[5] Ephesians 2:20
[6] “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
[7] “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
[8] But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13); For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 3:23)
[9] “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)
[10] 36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
 
41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7)
[11] “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” (John 14:23)

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