“This is a causal spirituality — where doing certain acts secures a response from God to give us what we want. It makes God a kind of vending machine that dispenses gifts as long as I put in the right code and make the right payment. . . . Generating passion becomes the solution to our problems when we relegate God to the sidelines of our spiritual formation.”- Kyle Strobel and John Coe
“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”- Deuteronomy 8:21 (NIV)
Kyle Strobel and John Coe conclude Chapter 4 of When God Seems Distant as they discuss the goal of the desert. In the desert God shows us the truth of our hearts. Therefore, we need to turn to the Lord, tell Him what’s going on in our hearts. In addition, we must come out of hiding, telling the Lord how we feel in our confusion and anxiety.
Because God calls us to Himself in order that we know a deeper kind of obedience. As well as a more profound love and forgiveness. Certainly, God’s goal isn’t despair and frustration.
In conclusion, Kyle and John counsel:
“Our problem is not that Gods’ method of growth is difficult to understand as much as it just feels disorienting. When we are confronted with the feeling of disorientation, passion feels more meaningful, and the flesh deludes us into thinking we can fuel our life with it.
The way of the flesh always leads us away from Christ rather than to him, and the flesh has no problem using religious and spiritual means to do so. . . . This is why loving much requires that we know the depths of what we have been forgiven. We need to take a journey with the Lord to know his forgiveness in the deepest places of the heart.”
Today’s question: What Scriptures keep you from a causal spirituality? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: Spiritual practices: broken, worldly?