As I was preparing for last week’s “Reaching Deeper” class it occurred to me that perhaps reaching deeper into God isn’t quite the right way to put it. It is more like God wants to reach deeper into us. That puts a bit of a different spin on it. Sometimes when we think about drawing closer to God we get a bit nervous. God know us – really. There’s no place to hide. God will see us as we really are.
Let’s be honest. We like to hide in the dark (Scripture says this). We try to put a good Christian face on our lives; one that perhaps God will approve of as well as other people. If we think in terms of reaching deeper into God – which means drawing closer to Him – perhaps He’ll demand that we really look at ourselves. Then we’ll have to do all that work of cleaning up our lives.
Let’s be honest. We like to hide in the dark (Scripture says this). We try to put a good Christian face on our lives; one that perhaps God will approve of as well as other people. If we think in terms of reaching deeper into God – which means drawing closer to Him – perhaps He’ll demand that we really look at ourselves. Then we’ll have to do all that work of cleaning up our lives.
If, on the other hand, we think of God going deeper into us our job then is to get out of His way. God will still see us as we are but if He really wants to go deeper into us, which He does, then He’ll work with us to get the blocks out of His way.
Still this is not an easy thing to do. God carries His lantern with Him as He reaches into us. He lights up His surroundings and we see what is there. But He works with us to let go of that which is keeping Him at a distance. That’s different than asking us to clean up our act. It’s a matter of letting go (which may actually be the harder task) more than trying to put on a Christian persona or live up to a set of values. He shows us what to let go of and gently helps us to pry our fingers loose. This allows the Holy Spirit to penetrate ever deeper into us and step by step He transforms us into what He means for us to be.
