Getting to Know God His Way, by Faith

We'll be on our way to becoming a spiritual people when we can joyfully accept those characteristics of God that are designed to remain out of our intellectual reach for the rest of our earth-bound lives.

We honor God best when we relate to Him by faith. There is no other way for us little people to embrace God's greatness except by faith. Practically speaking, this means we can't have anything to do with God unless He teaches us about Himself. We cannot look him up in the local yellow pages. Even the most advanced institute of higher learning cannot convey the mysteries of God in Christ. But God will teach us about Himself His Way.

Part of the genius of faith is that it minimizes men and maximizes God.

Men see what they want and expect to simply "arrive" at that end product by whatever way seems most expedient. However such shortsightedness is a fundamental motive for sin. God cares more about how things are done more than what can be done.

God-pleasing faith consists of much more than perceiving our arrival point so we can "beam ourselves up" to that point. He designed us to be motivated by something greater than some shallow desire to "arrive."

Such is the beauty of God's grace and wisdom, that He creates humans to be more than errand-runners. God made it possible for us human beings, made of dust, living in a world made of dust, to perceive something better than dust. That "something better" is heavenly significance in Christ.

Will magically transporting ourselves away from the daily grind facilitate our end goal, which is God's kingdom on earth? No. But rather Christ demonstrates His Divinity by using our everyday situations for His heavenly goals. He uses us even while we inhabit these shells of flesh amidst this sin-polluted earth . The odds are so stacked against us so heavily that, if we are ever used for spiritual gain, then this can only be a result of Christ's greatness.

We might expect God to snap His fingers and instantly accomplish His every whim just to get things over with. But His grace accomplishes more than just plucking us out of the world so we can sit on a cloud with a pair wings, a white robe and a halo. Such is the surprising depth of His genius and grace that He uses formerly lost people to seek and save that which is still lost. In this way, Christ is continually demonstrating His victory over sin.

The Spirit of Christ is encouraging His seekers to "arrive" in Him right now, wherever they are.

We will honor God best by trusting Him here and now. We will obey Him best by taking in His grace each day, rain or shine. We will worship God most substantially by determining to enjoy Him in whatever capacity He makes Himself available.

At the end of the day we should praise Him for refusing to accept anything less than perfect, heavenly quality. We should admire His wisdom for requiring such unattainable excellence and radical purity, such that no mortal could ever manufacture on his own.

Some might ask, "How can we make spiritual realities work for us?" The obvious answer is that we cannot do anything spiritual on our own. What good is this answer? It should lead us to listen to Christ and embrace our realistically humble place in His kingdom. We do well to embrace who God is in relation to who we are (or what we are not) so we can sincerely fall down on our faces before Him.

As for us church-saturated Americans, we might expect our religious concoctions to magically accomplish our spiritual responsibilities for us. But these things by themselves cannot begin to accomplish anything in God's estimation. Therefore it remains for us to give up our fleshly thinking in favor of becoming a spiritual people.

by Patrick Roberts. Find his book and additional resources at www.BooksByPatrick.com