Human beings the world over and throughout history have tried in a multitude of ways to get the attention of God. They’ve built statues and enormous temples; they’ve danced wildly under the moonlight; they’ve burned people alive; they’ve chanted and shouted on mountain-tops; they’ve starved themselves, cut themselves, and gone to war… all in an effort to make God look their way. It’s a grown-up version of the tizzy-fits children sometimes engage in, in a determined effort to get their parents to respond.
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These ancient ways of attention-seeking endure, along with numerous other methods considered to guarantee the intended results. People fall over in church; giggle uncontrollably; babble in what they claim to be heavenly languages; donate large amounts of money to their favourite ministries; sing loudly; cry; pout; put on a pious, religious appearance, and stick little fish symbols to the back of their cars.
Depending on just who the god of your choice is, you may as well continue with the above methods, for all the good they will do you. If it’s the God of the Bible you’re seeking; the God of Jesus Christ and the apostles; the God of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Joseph; the God of Genesis to Revelation – there’s a different, easier, and far more fulfilling method which our God has prescribed. Just a few verses of that same Bible, applied liberally, regularly and with conviction to our lives, will do what millennia of war, slaughter, screaming and falling over have failed to do.
“These are the ones I look on with favor:
those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
and who tremble at my word” (Isaiah 66:2b).
What is it to be “humble and contrite in spirit”? Well, whatever it is, it has to be genuine and not just to show how spiritual and holy we think we are, because it’s to be in our spirits, says the Lord. We need to work at that. And what exactly is “my word”? Logically speaking, it’s the book or collection of books in which this quote is contained. The Bible should be to us the very inspired word of the living God, who, as the first part of the verse explains, made all things:
“Has not my hand made all these things,
and so they came into being?”
declares the Lord.
His word, the Bible, is to be to us as high and mighty as He is. This is what we are to reverence and respect if we want our Creator’s acceptance and attention. It’s not a pile of paper between two covers – it’s His will and His testimony within them that we are to “tremble” over.
Here’s a verse from the New Testament – the words of Jesus to his disciples:
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:21).
We followers of Jesus are not under the law. However, the commandments Jesus gave were indeed a summation and a fulfillment of the law:
“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Here, then, is God’s prescription for the healing of a heart separated from Him. If we want His acceptance and His love and presence, we accept His only son, we apply the truth of His word to our hearts with reverence and humility, we love Him with all of our being, and we love those around us.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 