Are You Content?

Are you content with your faith? Do you look at the amount of time you spend with God and say, “I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job with prayer and reading my Bible this week.” Do you feel like you’ve just had a massive meal and are ready to sit back and digest when you think of your faith?

If you feel this way, you’re missing the point.

This has been a really heavy topic on my heart the past few months, mostly because I have felt content. I pray far more often than I read the Bible; I read the Bible every day; and worship has become a mindless habit, so you would think I’m set up pretty well spiritually. I would sit back, look at myself, and think, “I’m pretty happy with where I’m at right now.”

But here’s the thing: Whenever I think this, there’s no desire to go deeper. It’s like I’ve climbed a mountain, decided my view was good enough, and stopped to enjoy it. Not necessarily a bad thing, but if I stop there forever, I’ll never see more. And if there’s no longing to go higher, I’ll never move.

Getting to know Jesus, should be like eating a massive feast, but the more you eat, the more hungry you get. The closer you are to him, the more you should long to be closer. The clearer you see his eyes, the more you should desire to see his whole face.

It’s like when you read a really good book, and you’re hooked by the first page. You don’t want to put it down, so you keep reading, but everytime you try to stop, you say, “Just one more chapter!”

God revealed this to me during Awakening. I went into Awakening thinking I didn’t need to know more about God, because I was already doing pretty good. But during the many teachings and worship sessions, I learned more about God, and it made me desperate to continue learning more about Him!

I want to just keep sharing analogies to explain this concept differently, but I think what I should be focusing on right now is how to get to the starting point of hungering for the Bread of Life.

Sometimes, you’re not hungry until you start eating. In the same way, sometimes you have to force yourself to read the Bible, spend a minute in prayer, or switch the radio to worship.

But here’s the catch: Often, if you’re trying to feel a certain way from spending time with God, you’re no longer spending time with God. You’re doing certain actions to create a certain emotional response. Sometimes this works, but it usually leaves us wondering why God isn’t meeting us when we’re reaching out to Him.

The solution that works for me is going into each thing that brings me closer to God (Bible, prayer, worship, fasting, silence, there are so many to choose from!) with the desire to know Him deeper. When you understand your Father’s heart for you, you’ll never want to leave His embrace!