In a sermon series by Pastor Carter Goolsby of Mechanicsville Christrian Center (the church where I spent the last 17 years prior to coming to Newport News) the concept of community was championed as an essential part of our church experience. For most of us who consider ourselves already part of a local church, talk of community resonates with us because we have experienced the fulfillment that comes from “knowing others and being known, loving others and being loved, celebrating others and being celebrated, and serving others and being served.”
This sermon series not only reminded me why being a committed part of a local faith community is so vital, it also caused me to remember all the years I refused to embrace God and rejected His direction and friendship to guide my existence this side of eternity. In this blog and the next two, I would like to share some of the causes that impeded me from running with open arms and willful heart to a life whose foundation was a relationship with God.
First was, without question, a misunderstanding of God and His intentions towards me. My life revolved around what Rick Warren calls the P’s of life: pleasure, possessions, and prestige. I saw God has as someone who wanted to keep me from pursuing these things which I was convinced held the keys to me feeling fulfilled. My concept of the nature of God was that He represented a lot of rules that would stand in the way of a fun filled life.
One of the most telling places in the Bible that speaks to the true nature of God is in the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father…” Think of all the ways God could have chosen to be the primary way He wants us to think of Him, like Creator or Ruler. Certainly Father has en element of authority to it but even more importantly it says, “I will always have your best interest at heart.” Father is full of affection and endearing love. Being a father myself, I will always want what is best for my children. So when I sensed God was challenging my focus on the P’s of life, I understood it was not because God sadistically found satisfaction in robbing me of fun. It was not because He existed to enforce rules for the reason of depleting the fun tanks of people’s lives! His father’s heart longed for me to experience life to the fullest, and He wanted to teach me that my treasures were misplaced thus robbing me of the fulfillment I was seeking.
Now that my perception of God was changing, I realized my preoccupation with the P’s of life was not something to be defended and protected if it stood in the way of my relationship with God growing deeper. This is not to say that all pleasure, possessions, and even prestige are bad. They should just be pursuits in the context of God’s value system. For example, there is certainly physical pleasure in marriage. Possessions also enable us to care for ourselves and even serve others. Prestige can be important when we use our influence to advance noble causes and aid others. These are just a few examples of how the P’s of life can be good things. But when they become our only things, our primary pursuits, or life’s preoccupation, they displace the one thing that God teaches us leads to ultimate fulfillment – intimacy with Him.
Think of a life that only enables us to see in black and white and only in one dimension, no color or depth. Then, one day, depth and color come to your view! What a change!! God wants us to truly know the feeling of ultimate fulfillment. Any instruction, direction, correction, challenges that we sense from Him through prayer, reading the Bible, or even trusted friends and spiritual leaders, we can be sure that He is not trying to rob us of fun but helping us to fill our lives with both color and depth.
Is your perception of God accurate? When you think of God, what comes to mind? Talk with some friends to see what they think of when God comes to mind. Also, read the 13th chapter of I Corinthians and everywhere you see the word love, insert God instead. And finally, ask God to help you in your understanding of Him.
Pastor Fred Michaux
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