Today there are a multitude of voices telling us how to seek God and enter into His presence. A perfunctory look at the shelves in any Christian bookstore will find dozens of volumes purporting to contain the way to greater intimacy with Him. In fact the phrase “intimacy with God” has been so overused as to become almost a cliché in our Evangelical sub-culture. And, as with many aspects of the Christian life, the Western Church has bought into the surrounding society’s stress on “doing” rather than “being”. We want to make intimacy happen; we want to exert effort to draw nearer to God.
But what if that approach is wrong, what if we are trying so hard to get into His presence that we are actually making it impossible for God to be present to us? Could it be that all our effort is actually pre-empting Him?
The temptation to try too hard is a powerful one in this day and age. We are uncomfortable with rest. Our theology tells us that faith, not works, saves us but many Evangelical believers pay only lip service to this foundational truth. “Sure”, we say “salvation is a gift”. Then we begin what is often a lifetime of attempting to earn our way. Salvation may be free but sanctification apparently involves a lot of work. While this might be partly true work without rest is workaholism and it was never the intention of our Lord. It might be well to remember the occasion when Jesus told a busy Martha to stop criticizing her sister Mary who was resting quietly at His feet simply basking in His presence.
Would it be wrong to rest that way today? If “Basking in His presence” does not imply intimacy I do not know what does. Mary had the right idea then and her approach is timeless. Modern day Christians desperately need to stop trying to work there way into the presence of God. By doing this we may be actually working our way out of His presence.
Perhaps, in these frenetic days, the children of God need to rest a bit more than they need to work. Secular culture lures us to multi-task ourselves to death in a sort of “Protestant Work Ethic Gone Mad”. We put a religious face on it and call it a form of godliness, a proof of our zeal. Did Jesus ever rest? Yes, He did. So where, then, is the Sabbath rest for His people today, the Sabbath made for man rather than the other way around?
Maybe it is time for us to try being silent and still. We can invite the Lord to visit us in that quiet. Then we might hear Him. Then we might receive what we long for, His blessed presence and the knowledge of His love.
Copyright by Shea Oakley
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