Lent
I've never really celebrated Lent before, but decided to this year. A lot of people at college were giving things up for the 40 days, and I figured that it was a safe environment to do so as well and to have people hold me accountable. So I prayed about what to give up, and God made it painfully clear...TEA. Now I enjoy tea a lot, but wasn't actually addicted or anything. It's not even exactly bad for you.
For the first 36 days I still did not understand why God told me to give up tea for Lent. But then the other day he finally told me:
"There is no substitute." I haven't had tea during the whole Lent season, but I had a cup of hot chocolate and a couple milk steamers. They were good in the moment, but I'm still very much craving tea and looking forward to having it tomorrow. So basically, God reminded me that there is no substitute for him. I can try other things but ultimately nothing will satisfy my spiritual cravings except for Jesus. More personally for me, everything will leave me empty except spending time with God. Good conversations, stimulating reading, challenging Biblical assignments...while these things are good, they are no substitute for what my soul really needs: communion with my Creator. God's Word is ALIVE and he still speaks today. He has things to tell me if I'm willing to listen. As Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good..." I have tasted and seen the Lord's goodness (I'll soon be posting on the goodness of God -- thoughts based on a book I'm reading). I've experienced it, and I've experienced his faithfulness, so I trust that he is faithful to continue in his goodness. How else do I "get a taste" of him except by spending time with him? How else does any relationship grow?
God: As He Longs for You to See Him is a book I'm reading, by Chip Ingram. I absolutely love his clear, blunt language, challenging ideas, supporting Scripture and practical suggestions. I have a lot of thoughts on what I've read so far, but wanted to point out this quote:
God promises you will find him if you seek him. He also promises to give you the Spirit you need in order to known him if you ask. Are you seeking? Are you asking? Are you knocking? Are you praying, 'God I want to know you'? One of the reasons we don't know God better is our unwillingness to follow what we already know. He wants us to see him and be transformed. He wants us to experience his love, his grace, and his holiness far more than we do. But the ball is in our court. We must seek him.
For some reason we've got this notion in our heads that God wants to fill us with intellectual knowledge (maybe it's a Western mindset, a Bible College mindset, or both!) But when we look at the life of Jesus, that was absolutely not his intent. He said that if his disciples saw him, they had seen the Father...he came to reveal God to us -- experientially. Not to just know about God, but to know him personally and intimately through the life that Jesus lived and portrayed. We can never know God exhaustively, but we can know him truly. What he has revealed about himself can be known absolutely. But what challenged me is that God often won't reveal more until what we already know has affected us. It's a lot easier to say "Jesus loves me" or "He is holy" or "God is in control" than it is to seriously allow these beliefs to transform the entire way we think, act, plan, feel, and live our lives.
I think that's what my Lent lesson comes back to. Yes, I knew in my head that God is "more than enough" and is able to satisfy, but I wasn't putting that into practice; I was still trying to substitute other things, maybe even "spiritual" looking things, for Christ and spending time with him.
But there is no substitute.
For the first 36 days I still did not understand why God told me to give up tea for Lent. But then the other day he finally told me:
"There is no substitute." I haven't had tea during the whole Lent season, but I had a cup of hot chocolate and a couple milk steamers. They were good in the moment, but I'm still very much craving tea and looking forward to having it tomorrow. So basically, God reminded me that there is no substitute for him. I can try other things but ultimately nothing will satisfy my spiritual cravings except for Jesus. More personally for me, everything will leave me empty except spending time with God. Good conversations, stimulating reading, challenging Biblical assignments...while these things are good, they are no substitute for what my soul really needs: communion with my Creator. God's Word is ALIVE and he still speaks today. He has things to tell me if I'm willing to listen. As Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good..." I have tasted and seen the Lord's goodness (I'll soon be posting on the goodness of God -- thoughts based on a book I'm reading). I've experienced it, and I've experienced his faithfulness, so I trust that he is faithful to continue in his goodness. How else do I "get a taste" of him except by spending time with him? How else does any relationship grow?
God: As He Longs for You to See Him is a book I'm reading, by Chip Ingram. I absolutely love his clear, blunt language, challenging ideas, supporting Scripture and practical suggestions. I have a lot of thoughts on what I've read so far, but wanted to point out this quote:
God promises you will find him if you seek him. He also promises to give you the Spirit you need in order to known him if you ask. Are you seeking? Are you asking? Are you knocking? Are you praying, 'God I want to know you'? One of the reasons we don't know God better is our unwillingness to follow what we already know. He wants us to see him and be transformed. He wants us to experience his love, his grace, and his holiness far more than we do. But the ball is in our court. We must seek him.
For some reason we've got this notion in our heads that God wants to fill us with intellectual knowledge (maybe it's a Western mindset, a Bible College mindset, or both!) But when we look at the life of Jesus, that was absolutely not his intent. He said that if his disciples saw him, they had seen the Father...he came to reveal God to us -- experientially. Not to just know about God, but to know him personally and intimately through the life that Jesus lived and portrayed. We can never know God exhaustively, but we can know him truly. What he has revealed about himself can be known absolutely. But what challenged me is that God often won't reveal more until what we already know has affected us. It's a lot easier to say "Jesus loves me" or "He is holy" or "God is in control" than it is to seriously allow these beliefs to transform the entire way we think, act, plan, feel, and live our lives.
I think that's what my Lent lesson comes back to. Yes, I knew in my head that God is "more than enough" and is able to satisfy, but I wasn't putting that into practice; I was still trying to substitute other things, maybe even "spiritual" looking things, for Christ and spending time with him.
But there is no substitute.