In his book, Hamlet's Blackberry, William Powers likens our digital age to a gigantic room.
And in the room, there are more than a billion people.
And despite its size, everyone is in close proximity to everyone else.
And at any moment, someone may come up to you and tap you on the shoulder.
A text, a hit, a comment, a tweet, a post, a message, a thread.
Some people come up to talk business, others to complain, others to tell secrets, others to flirt,
others to sell you things, others to give you information,
others just to tell you what they're thinking or doing, whether you want to or not know it.
It just never stops.
And for a while, you enjoy that room immensely.
Eventually, you go tired of the constant noise where you struggle to find a personal space.
Someone taps you while you're eating.
Someone taps you while you're sleeping.
Someone, for goodness sake, even taps you while you're sitting on the toilet.
And eventually, we decide we want to take a break, just a short one, just pause for 30 days or one week.
And we decide to exit.
But no one seems to know where the exit door is or even cares where the exit door is.
In fact, they all seem really annoyed that you might not want to stay in the room with them.
And when you eventually find the exit, you see the enchanting world through the opening,
but you're not sure what life is like on the other side, stepping out of the digital room.
It's a leap of faith.
You jump out and see what happens.
Now, the point of his parable is fairly self-evident.
We love the room, but we hate the room.
We want to breathe the undistracted air of digital freedom,
but increasingly, this room is all we know.
How can we walk out when everyone else is staying in?
How will we pass our time and occupy our thoughts without the incessant tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap?
For many of us, the digital age is like the Eagle song, Hotel California.
You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
The scariest part is that we may not, in fact, want to leave the room.
What if we, in fact, prefer the endless noise to the deafening sound of silence?
What if the trivialities and the distractions of our day are not, in fact, forced upon us by busyness or not forced upon us at all?
What if we choose to be busy so that we can continue to live with trivia and distraction?
Power suggests that digital busyness is the enemy of depth.
Digital busyness is the enemy of depth.
And that we are bound to be stuck in the shallows of life as long as we are connected.
In our age of distracted busyness, there is the threat of Assyria.
The word Assyria had its origins in the 17th century and is roughly equivalent in meaning to the word sloth or listlessness.
And in particular, the word means a spiritual and a mental apathy.
Richard Newhouse explains,
Assyria is evenings without number, obliterated by television.
Evenings neither of entertainment nor of education, but of narcoticized defense against time and duty.
And above all, Assyria is apathy, the refusal to engage the tragedy of our lives and of God's life with them.
For too many of us, the hustle and bustle of electronic activity is a sad expression of a much deeper listlessness and apathy.
We are busy with busyness.
Rather than figure out what to do with our spare minutes and hours, we are content to swim in the shallows and pass our time with passing the time.
How many of us, growing too accustomed to the Assyria of our age, feel this strange mix in our hearts and of our emotions,
the strange mix of busyness and yet lifelessness at the same time?
I won't ask for a show of hands.
Busyness and yet lifelessness.
We are always engaged with our thumbs, but rarely engaged with our thoughts or our hearts.
We keep downloading information, but rarely get down into the depths of our hearts.
That is Assyria.
Purposeness disguised as constant commotion.
But then again, we want to be harried.
We want to be hassled.
We want to be busy.
We don't have to.
We want to.
Unconsciously, we in fact want the very things we complain about.
Because if we had a stillness, if we had a silence, if we had a rest, we would look at ourselves, we would listen to our hearts and see the gaping hole.
And we would be terrified.
Because that hole is so big that nothing but God himself can fill it.
The hyperactivity of today's contemporary society and our cultural attention deficit disorder makes slow reflection and meditation a lost art.
And it's the enemy of depth.
It's one of the biggest roadblocks of us deepening our prayer life, deepening our spiritual life, deepening in such a way that we might encounter God.
Because it requires time.
It requires attention.
It requires discipline to deepen our prayer life.
Because the doorway to a deeper prayer life is sustained, careful meditation on the word of God.
And way too many of us are just content to have a daily devotion pop up on our screen, read a Bible passage, cook a couple of notes, say the prayer.
A Bible a day keeps the devil away and I'm sorted.
So meditation is the doorway to deeper prayer.
The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible.
But it is noteworthy that the first Psalm, and in fact the first and second Psalm, which scholars would argue are one Psalm,
is in fact not a prayer per se, but a meditation on meditation.
Psalm 1, if you get your Bibles, it would be good if you have it open in front of you.
Psalm 1 has the prime place at the beginning of the Psalms, and it's not an accident.
And yet the introduction to the book of prayers is not itself a prayer, but it is preparing us to pray instead.
It gets us ready to pray.
Two weeks ago, I defined prayer for the Christian as continuing the conversation that God has started with us through his word and by his grace,
which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.
But there is this middle ground between Bible study and prayer.
There is a middle ground between Bible study and prayer.
And it's a kind of, if you like, a bridge between the two.
While deep experiences of the presence and the power of God can happen in innumerable ways,
the ordinary way for encountering God according to the scriptures is going deeper spiritually into prayer through meditation on the word of God.
And according to Psalm 1, meditation on the word of God promises at least three things.
First of all, it promises stability.
The person experienced in meditation is like a tree rooted so that wind cannot blow it away.
Those who meditate on the word become people of substance, people who have thought things out and have deep convictions,
who can explain difficult concepts in simple language and who have good reasons behind everything that they do.
Now, notice in Psalm 1 that this tree is planted by streams of water.
Now, trees by streams of water go well even if there's little rain.
And you look at all the pictures of drought-stricken western New South Wales and Queensland,
and you will see barren paddocks except where the river courses.
And there's green trees still there.
This is an image in someone of someone who can keep going
and in fact even grow in hard and dry times.
Meditation on the word is how we get stability,
how we get peace and courage in times of great difficulty and adversity and upheaval.
By contrast, in Psalm 1, there's the chaff.
It's the husk.
It's the waste bit around the seed of the grain.
And it's lightweight.
It's a little puff and a breeze and it just blows away.
Anything can move it.
And the way to avoid being the chaff rather than being the tree
is through meditation on God's word.
Meditation also brings the promise of character.
Chaff cannot produce anything because it's not a growing thing.
It's in fact dead.
The tree can produce fruit because it is a growing thing.
Those who meditate on the word don't just have stability
and firm convictions about truth.
They in fact have the character to match it.
Meditation bears fruit,
which in the Bible means character traits.
Galatians 5, 22 and 23.
Character traits is love, joy, peace, patience, humility, self-control.
Biblical meditation then does not merely make us feel close to God.
It's not just about having an encounter with God.
It results in the transformation of our life.
It changes who we are.
Finally, meditation brings blessedness.
It means peace and well-being in every dimension.
It means character growth.
It means stability.
And according to verse 2, it means delight.
Delight.
See, biblical meditation moves us beyond a mere duty of reading to the word to joy
in encountering God and his word.
Which takes me to my next point, meditation and the mind.
Many forms of meditation,
such as particularly stuff from Eastern religions,
but not just Eastern religions,
such as transcendental meditation,
have the goal of emptying your mind of all consciousness.
You get every noise and every thought out of your head
so that you are an empty vessel
in order to discover meaning within yourself.
Empty yourself and then you'll find meaning within yourself.
Seems a little strange to me on one level,
but biblical meditation, on the other hand,
is the exact opposite.
Biblical meditation fully engages the mind.
When the first psalm calls us to meditate,
it uses a word that literally means to mutter.
It refers to the fact that,
particularly in ancient times,
the scriptures,
the word of God was recited aloud.
And it was recited aloud from memory.
And there is no better way to meditate on a passage of the Bible
and draw out all of its aspects,
all of its implications,
and all of its richness,
than in fact to memorize it
and to chew it over like a good piece of steak
or something like that.
Other words translated as meditate in the psalms
mean to ponder and to question thoroughly,
such as you've got Psalm 77 in front of you,
verses 3, 6, and 12.
The first stage of engaging the mind
is to study the passage.
It's to study and interpret the passage
so that we get to know something
about what the passage actually means.
You cannot reflect on or enjoy
what you do not understand.
And so to understand a section of scripture
means answering two really basic questions.
There's more questions to ask than this,
but two really basic questions about it.
First of all,
what did the original author intend to convey
to his original readers about in this passage?
That's the first question.
Not what does it say to me first,
what does it say to them,
the first recipients?
And secondly,
what role does this passage play
in the whole message of the Bible,
of God's unfolding plan of salvation?
How does it contribute to the gospel message
and a move along the main narrative arc of the Bible,
which climaxes in salvation in Christ Jesus?
Unless you first do that hard work
of answering those questions about a passage,
your meditations on the passage
won't be grounded in what God is actually saying
in the passage.
Let me say that one more time.
Unless you do the hard work
of studying the passage
in its original meaning
and where it fits in the Bible,
your meditation on the passage
will not be grounded in what God is actually saying.
When we do that,
what we are doing
is we are listening to our own heart
or the spirit of our culture
and imposing that on God's word
instead of listening to God's voice in the Bible.
Martin Luther said
that before he could turn a biblical text
into praise,
he first needed to understand it as instruction,
as truthful information.
So biblical meditation is founded
on the work of sound biblical interpretation
and study.
But secondly,
meditation and the heart.
Biblical meditation
is, however,
more than just intense thinking.
It's more than just Bible study.
The Bible contains information,
but it's so much more than just information.
It talks about itself
as living and an active agent
in Hebrews 4.12.
Biblical meditation involves
not just mind work,
but heart work as well.
When Paul talks about the word of God
dwelling in us richly
in Colossians 3.16,
he's clearly talking of something
which is beyond mere ascent to information.
He's talking about deep
and penetrating contemplation
that enables the Bible's message
to have transforming power in our life.
Biblical meditation is,
if you like,
tasting that the Lord is good.
It's tasting the scripture.
It is delighting in it.
It is sensing the sweetness of the teaching,
feeling the conviction
of what it tells us about ourselves,
and thanking God
and praising Him
for what it shows us about Him.
It's taking the truth
that we are engaging with our minds
and pushing it
into our hearts
until it catches fire
and begins to melt
and shape
and mould our lives
in such a way
that it shapes and moulds
our reactions to God
and reactions to ourselves
and reaction to the world around us.
It is taking the truth
into all of our relationships.
It's to ask the question,
what does this mean?
Now that I've understood
what this passage meant
for the first hearers
as God intended it,
what does this passage mean
for my relationship with God?
What does it mean
for my relationship to myself?
What does it mean
for this person,
my relationship with this person
and that person
and this group of people?
Is this or that behaviour
or habit,
what does it mean for that?
What does it mean for my friends?
What does it mean for my culture?
Is there something
that I need to stop
because of this passage?
Is there something
I should start
because of this passage?
Why might God
be showing me this passage
on this day
in this moment?
What is God doing
now in my life
would make this passage
relevant to me?
You know,
if I'm constantly
engaging in God's word
and he's constantly,
for instance,
bringing out passages
about prayer,
is he trying to tell me
something about that?
If it's sin,
is he trying to tell me
something about that?
These are questions
that are very searching.
And as you work
a truth in,
you may be convicted,
you may be humbled,
you may be troubled,
you may be calmed,
you may be comforted,
you may be excited,
you might be filled
with uncontainable joy.
And once you've worked
out the truth
and then worked it
in to your heart,
the immediate results
may, in fact,
vary.
Martin Luther was quite realistic
when he said that
sometimes the Holy Spirit
begins to immediately
preach to your heart
and sometimes
he does not.
Sometimes,
no matter what we do,
we simply cannot
concentrate
or we find our thoughts
to not become big
and we find our thoughts
not to become affecting
but rather we
sometimes will feel bored
and we will feel hard
and we will feel distracted.
In fact,
I even think Psalm 1
is a passage
that is
realistic.
it's a tree
by streams of water
sucking in the water
consistently.
It's a tree
that will always
be green
but it only bears
its fruit in season.
There are seasons
where the fruit's
just not coming.
And when that happens,
that's when we should
just simply turn to God.
Martin Luther said
we just simply turn to God
and ask for help.
And he says
that even if your meditation
give you only
a renewed
gracious sense
of your own dryness,
your own weakness,
your own insufficiency,
that's not a waste
of time.
This is hard work
and hard work
is always
hard work
and that is why
most prefer
the noise
of busyness
and distraction
and entertainment
to the deafening
silence
of being alone
and searching
the depths
of our hearts.
So how do we
get the energy
and the motivation
to do this
hard work?
Some of us
may have been
studying the Bible
for decades
but the hard work
thing,
we're being content
in our biblical
knowledge
but the hard work
thing,
that's even right
now to think
about it,
it's hard work.
How do we get
the energy
and the motivation
to do hard work
and especially
when we are
in a season
where it seems
there isn't much
fruit being produced
or in fact
we actually
don't like
what we see,
we don't like
what we see.
Someone tells us
that the godly man
or woman
meditates on the
law of the Lord
day and night
and delights
in it.
The answer
for us
in that moment
is to look
at the central
figure of the
entire written
word.
The one that
John 14
1 calls
the word
made flesh.
Jesus Christ,
the ultimate
expression
and communication
of God
and to find
our delight
in him
while we're
doing the
hard work.
Last week,
this is off
text,
sorry John,
just feel
late I should
say this,
James took us
through the
Lord's Prayer.
Let me tell you,
my general
experience when I
go through the
Lord's Prayer
prayer is I
don't get much
beyond our
Father.
And that
normally breaks
me,
our Father.
And all the
implications with
that.
And I have
moments where I
just want to
praise and
thank God
that I,
who I am,
minuscule as I
am,
get to call
the almighty
God of this
universe,
Father.
And I have
this image
of little
John Jr.
in the
White House
under the
desk as a
two-year-old
while JFK's
having a
meeting with
all the
heavies of
the world
and the
heavies of
his
administration.
No other
two-year-old
gets to go
into the
Father's
presence like
that.
And yet I
do.
But I've
gone through
this Lord's
Prayer a few
times recently
in the last
number of
months.
And it
happened to me
again last
Sunday.
As I was
sitting here
in church,
go through
the Lord's
Prayer.
Bang,
bang,
bang.
And I
got past
our Father
without tears.
But inside
of me what's
been happening
lately is I
get to the
bit,
forgive us
our sins
as we
forgive those
who sin
against us.
And it's
that second
statement,
those who
sin against
us,
that's right
now is where
my heart's
leaping.
And I
think,
hear what,
what God's
saying.
I just
prayed a
prayer,
forgive me
my sin
as I
forgive those
who sin
against us,
sin against
me.
In the
same way
that I
forgive others,
you forgive
me.
sin against
me.
And I
don't get
any further
than that.
No,
God,
don't do
that.
Don't
forgive my
sins like
I forgive
other sins.
And he's
been working
in my
heart about
unresolved
issues of
resentment
towards other
people.
God,
please don't
forgive my
sin like I
have forgiven
their sin
because I
haven't.
what's the
solution in
the moment
there?
The son.
Jesus,
dwell on
the word
who became
flesh.
Jesus delights
in doing
God's will.
He's the one
who prays day
and night,
who meditates
on his word
day and night.
He's the one
who, when he
looks to God,
experiences the
light in his
father.
he's the one
who meditated
so profoundly
on scripture
that he
literally bled
scripture,
quoting it
instinctively in
the most extreme
moments of his
life, using the
word of God,
even when enduring
the infinite agony
of the cross.
And yet Jesus
is not just
simply a good
example for us
to follow.
If that were
true, his life
would crush us.
If he was just
an example,
his life would
crush us with
guilt and with
failure, since
no one could
meditate on the
scripture as he
does or live up
to what it
reveals about God
and about us.
Jesus is not
just an example
within the Bible.
He is the one
to whom the
Bible points.
And the main
message of the
Bible is salvation
by grace through
Jesus.
He forgives me
my sin.
It's all about
him.
The written
word and its
law can be a
delight because
the incarnate
word came and
died for us,
securing pardon
for our sins
and shortcomings
for not living up
to God's law.
You cannot
delight in the
law of the
Lord without
understanding
Jesus' entire
mission.
conviction.
Without
Jesus, the
law of the
Lord is
nothing but a
curse.
It is a
condemnation.
It is a
witness against
us.
He obeyed
the law of
the Lord
fully, so
now it can
become a
delight to
us, even
when we've
been brought
to conviction.
Jesus is
supremely the
one on
whom we
meditate
because he
is the
meditation of
God.
He is God's
truth becoming
real.
He is God's
truth made
concrete and
applied.
Meditate on
Jesus who is
the ultimate
meditation of
God.
Look at him
loving you.
Look at him
dying for you.
Look at him
rejoicing in
you.
Look at all
of that.
And he will
be a delight
to you.
And the
law of the
Lord will be
a delight to
you.
And you
will be like
a tree
planted by
streams of
water.
And you'll
bear your
fruit in
season, no
matter what
happens, your
leaf will not
wither.
John Calvin
wrote, the
word of
God is
not received
by faith
as if it
flits about
in the top
of the
brain, but
when it
takes root
in the
depth of
the heart.
heart.
We must
not settle
for an
informed
mind
without an
engaged
heart.
If we
do, the
New Testament
calls it
Pharisee.
the great
prayer by
the Apostle
Paul in
Ephesians 3
suggests that
Christians have
blessings in
Christ that
we don't
experience.
Paul prays
for his
readers that
Christ may
dwell in
your hearts
through faith
in verse
17.
That they
would know
this love
of Christ
in verses
18 and
19.
And finally
he prays
that they
would be
filled with
all the
fullness of
God in
verse 19.
They are
his three
petitions for
the church
at Ephesus.
And yet
this church
at Ephesus,
these Ephesians,
were all
Christian believers.
In Ephesians 1
verses 22
and 23,
he teaches
that by being
united with
Christ,
they already
have the
fullness of
God in
them.
So why
is Paul
asking God
to give
Christians
things that
they must
surely already
have?
Why is he
doing that?
Well, at
one level,
Christians have
these things
and at
another level,
they haven't
experienced
them yet.
It is one
thing to
know of
the love
of Christ
and to
say,
yeah, I know
he did all
that for me.
I know he
went to
the cross,
he died,
and he's
forgiven my
sins.
It's another
thing to
grasp how
wide and
how long and
how high and
how deep is
the love of
Christ.
The difference
is this.
Right now,
I've got
three daughters
in kids'
church,
in somewhere
out there,
I'm
assuming.
They're my
girls.
They're my
children.
I'm their
father.
And that
is a status
that always
exists.
It will
always exist.
I'll always
be their
father.
They'll
always be
my girls.
If I
walked in
there right
now,
and if one
of the
leaders of
kids'
church said
to them,
ah,
Steve's your
dad,
they'd go,
yep.
That's
true.
But if I
walked into
kids'
church right
now,
said,
just excuse
me for a
minute,
walked in
and picked
up one
of my
girls,
and hugged
her,
and said
to her,
I'm proud
of you
and I
love you.
Don't
care what
anyone else
is doing
right now,
I just want
you to know
that.
Give them
a kiss
and put them
back down.
They would
know that I
am their
father in a
slightly
different way.
objectively
and legally,
there's no
difference in
my fatherhood,
in my
relationship,
whether I'm
here or
whether I'm
there.
It makes
no difference
objectively
or legally.
But in
my arms,
my daughters
experience that
they are my
children.
And what
Paul is
talking about
is the
difference
between having
something to
be true of
you in
principle,
all and
fully
appropriating
it,
using it
and living
in it.
In your
inner being,
in verse
16,
in your
heart,
in verse
17,
it is
possible for
Christians to
live their
lives with
a high
degree of
phoniness,
of
hollowness
and
inauthenticity.
reality.
And the
reason is
they have
failed to
move that
truth that
they know in
their mind
into their
hearts and
in such a
way that it's
not actually
changed who
they are and
how they live
from the
inside out.
It's not
until it
drops that
internal change
happens.
up here,
external
change of
behaviours may
happen,
but that's
just called
pharisaism.
It's not
until the
affections are
moved from
the heart,
internal
change happens
and outward
change happens
as a result.
And in
Ephesians 3,
Paul is
praying that
by the
Spirit's
power,
we may
have our
hearts and
our affections
engaged and
shaped by the
truths of the
faith that we
hold in the
mind.
Paul says,
I pray that
out of his
glorious riches,
he may
strengthen you
with power
through his
Spirit in
your inner
being so
that you
may grasp
how wide
and long
and high
and deep
is the
love of
Christ.
The word
grasp there
is so
important.
It's
more than
just
believe.
It means
to get a
secure hold
on something.
And
Paul's
prayer
suggests that
Christians
need a
spiritual
grasping,
a spiritual
sensitizing,
all the
truths that
we mouth
and assent
to make
no difference
at all in
how we
live.
If you
are exposed
to the
light
of the
Christian
truth that
God is
holy,
and if the
Holy Spirit
has sensitized
your heart,
then you
not only
respond with
emotion,
with tears
or trembling
or joy,
but you
permanently
change the
way you
live and
behave in
the world.
Now,
no one
expressed
this better
than
Jonathan
Edwards.
In his
sermon,
some would
say the
great
sermon,
divine and
spiritual
light.
Now,
at the
heart of
his
sermon
was a
famous,
what is a
famous
illustration
about
honey.
And
he says
there's two
ways to
know that
honey is
sweet.
You can
read the
ingredients.
I can
tell you
it's sweet.
Probably
there's three
ways to
know.
One way
is the
ingredients.
which is
here
somewhere.
Ingredient.
100%
pure
honey.
That's
not telling
me a
lot.
What if
I said
to you
100%
bee
spit?
Not
compelling.
But I
could tell
you another
thing is
I replace
this stuff
with shoo.
This is
sweet.
This is
really
sweet.
And I
could go
through a
chemical
compound
of why
the bee
spit is
a lot
more
tasty
than
mine.
I could
talk to
you about
chemically
how it's
built up
and you
could sit
there and
go,
well, I
know that's
true.
It's
fantastic.
But what
Edwards said
to make it
absolutely
undisputable,
you take
the lid
off and
you get
a spoon
and you
put it
on your
mouth.
And he
said,
in that
moment,
if you
do not
sense that
honey is
sweet,
I can't
do anything
for you.
I can't
help you
in any
other way.
you
can
know that
honey is
sweet because
people tell
you about
it and
you believe
them,
but when
you actually
taste it,
you know
fully,
mentally as
well as
experientially.
when you
move from
just mentally
knowing about
the sweetness
of honey
to directly
tasting it,
you go,
oh,
now I
know.
Now I
know.
Honey is
one thing,
but God's
another.
There is a
difference between
having an
opinion that
God is holy
and gracious
and having a
sense of
the loveliness
and the
beauty of
that holiness
and graciousness
in the
heart.
And Paul
is asking
here in
Ephesians 3
that the
Holy Spirit
will sensitize
the hearts
of the
Ephesian
believers so
that they
taste the
truths,
spiritually
speaking,
and when
they taste
the truth,
they encounter
God
for who
he is.
And it's a
prayer for us
too.
this is a
prayer for
us,
that we
don't just
know,
but that we
really know,
we taste
that the
Lord is
good.
So I
want to ask
you,
have you
grown too
accustomed to
the
acedia of
our age,
where the
purposelessness
is disguised
as constant
commotion?
Maybe you,
in fact,
something happened
to you in
that moment
when I
said and
repeated,
do you
feel the
strange mix
of busyness
and yet
lifelessness?
The
hyperactivity
of today's
contemporary
society and
our cultural
attention
deficit
disorder
make slow
reflection and
meditation a
lost art.
Friends,
there is no
quick fix,
there is no
simple formula
to going
deeper in
prayer.
It takes
time,
it takes
planning,
and it
takes constant
attention.
And there
is little
more than I
can say
time.
If you
have a
time,
then stop
it.
Take back
the time.
Don't tell
me you
haven't got
time.
Take back
the time.
Turn off
the TV.
Put down
the phone.
Start saying
no to your
children.
Or whatever
it is that's
filling your
diaries.
Put down
the novels,
put down
the magazines,
put down
whatever it
is,
and seek
the face
of God.
There's no
other way
than to
take back
the time.
Only he
can fill
the hole.
Keep buying
new cars,
keep searching
for more
information on
Google,
look at,
see what's
happening with
the weather
for the
tenth time
today.
Today,
only he
can fill
the hole,
only he
can be the
delight of
your heart.
And you
will only
discover the
delight of
your heart
as you
meditate
on his
word to
you.
Only he
can fill
the hole.
That's
because in
the Garden
of Eden,
we
sinned
and we
lost the
face of
God.
This was
the greatest
disaster
possible for
humanity
because we
were designed
by God
in his
image to
live in a
unique,
perfect,
in the
marvelous light
of his
presence.
We were
designed to
exist in
his
presence.
We were
created to
be constantly
encountering
him.
And ever
since the
Garden of
Eden,
humanity
has wandered
empty and
destitute,
looking for
every kind
of substitute
to fill the
gaping hole
in our
hearts
because we
do not
have an
encounter
with God.
We do
not exist
in his
presence.
In
Exodus 32,
Moses
realized that
if I could
just get
once again
that encounter
with God,
if I could
just see
God face
to face,
he said
all of my
longings
would be
fulfilled.
And so
he asked
to see
it,
but he
couldn't
because sin
was a
barrier.
And in
Jesus,
that sin
has been
taken away
and we
can begin
to see
again.
Though
only
partially
this side
of heaven
and by
faith,
we can
see again
the light
of the
glory of
God in
the face
of Christ
and when
we meditate
and we
pray the
gospel
and its
auxiliary
truths
into our
hearts,
those longings
for the
face of
God
are slowly
satisfied
and other
things in
life
become
gifts
rather than
God's.
And we
slowly but
surely and
radically change
in our
character
and in
all of
our
relationships.
So take
back the
time and
encounter
God by
meditating on
his word
and prayer.
prayer.