| Pastoral Ponderings by Bob Smith |
| I was browsing in a Christian bookstore recently and became overwhelmed at all I need to be doing as a Christian. I need this book on a deeper prayer life and that book on being a more loving husband. I need to spend more time in my Bible and better answer the questions of my unsaved friends and family. Everywhere I looked there was another area in my Christian walk that needed to be fixed, mended or just taken out back and shot. I ultimately walked out of there with nothing. Why even try? It would be like sticking a band-aid on the Titanic. It all seems so impossible and overwhelming. Our relationship with God is overwhelming - as it should be - because it keeps us humble and needful of Him. But it is also amazingly simple as well. In John 14:27, Jesus tells His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.” The world looks for peace in circumstances, but only God can give us peace despite circumstances. That is because He is the author of peace. With God, we can have peace, feel loved despite being alone and have fulfilling joy despite what we seemingly lack. Pastor John Killinger, in a sermon about finding God in a busy world, relates a visit to an old church overlooking Paris, France. As the church is a big tourist attraction, it was filled with busloads of people from all over the world, stumbling against one another. | There in the middle of all the commotion of people coming and going, Killinger noticed a tiny woman whose head was bowed in prayer. She seemed totally oblivious to all that was going on around her. He said of that scene, “As I watched, I thought of the text, 'Be still, and know that I am God.'" As Christians we come to points in our relationships with God where it feels that we are spiritually dry and God is distant. We'll go out and buy the latest praise tape and spend extra time in Bible study and prayer trying to regain that feeling of connectedness. But God wants to sanctify us entirely and maybe the problem is an area of our life that we don't want to turn over to Him. We hope that He'll be satisfied with what we're already giving to Him and leave the rest of our life alone; but He knows that won't make us happy in the long run. Some of us are going to wake up tomorrow too early and with our plates too full. The urge to cave in will be overwhelming; but remember this: God is the source of all we desire; God desires us entirely; and God is able. Let us begin with that in mind and conquer the day by His grace. |