Knowing God
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“And there is none on earth I desire besides You.”
(Psalm 73:25b)
By Rev Dale Lee
Now that the thrill is gone whatever will we do next? Live long enough and the thrill will certainly fade away. But oh how man tries to keep the thrill alive. C. S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity: “It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill; that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go – let it die away – go on through that period of death into the quieter interests and happiness that follow – and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life. It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women talking aimlessly about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all around them.” New horizons and new doors! Now that we have tried every door falsely labeled happiness, God has a suggestion for us given through a man named Asaph. Get shed of all these dominating, diverting desires and reduce them to one: God. This is the foundation of all happiness. And the happiness we will assuredly find in God will never fade. It will only deepen and increase and overflow and last and thrill forever. Even in the midst of this dark, evil world, a life given to knowing, pleasing and enjoying God is the only life worth living. And this joy does not end at death but reaches new heights and depth and fullness. And this forever. There is in front of us a new horizon and a new door: time, energy, emotion invested in seeking God. Churches on life-support could be inevitably resuscitated if they give up the old dead thrills and seek God Himself. God will not disappoint. But people will try just about everything for happiness except God, including eating dirt. Becoming in love with God and thrilled with Him will never end. All this other stuff doesn’t compare with Him. If only it didn’t take us so long to figure this out. Author John Maxwell teaches that when it comes to commitment, such as the commitment to seek God above all else, there are four types of people: cop-outs, these who have no goals, will never commit, will never seek God because it requires a supreme effort; holdouts, these live in fear and hesitate to commit until they see for themselves how things will turn out; dropouts, these quit when things get tough, and all-outs, these see the prize and give all to win; they are willing to pay the price. Asaph was an all-out pursuer of God. There are multitudes of drop outs who are about to re-enlist in order to seek God and experience His glory.