Hosea 6:6
I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
My brother Tim worked at our local hospital as an orderly when he was in high school. Because the hospital staff was small in number and close knit, my brother was taken under the wing of several nurses (and a couple of doctors), and he was a quick study. One day when Tim was 15 or 16, he heard a woman screaming on the courthouse square as he drove up Main Street. The woman was standing alongside her husband… and he was having a heart attack. Tim stopped and resuscitated this man by administering CPR… and he literally saved this man’s life.
My brother learned a lot about medicine as a high school orderly – and then he became a heart monitor technician - which led to his lifelong interest in cardiac medicine. By the time Tim went to nursing school, he already had a lot of firsthand experience. He still had to do the “book learning” – and there was a lot to learn – but like many good nurses before him who never even went to nursing school, Tim learned much “on the job.”
Our pastor recently said, “Being in church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than being in the hen house makes you a chicken!” God wants us to learn “on the job” by spending time with Him… learning from Him, communicating with Him, studying His word… and “practicing” our faith. Prayer meetings, Bible studies, worship services and fellowship with other Christians all have their place. But being able to quote scripture or warming a pew for a meeting/service/class doesn’t necessarily mean you have a love for God that lasts… or a deep, abiding relationship with Him. When it comes to our Christian faith, relationships trump “book learning” every time.
God wants us to worship Him and fortify our relationship by putting our faith into action. He wants us to communicate… but He also wants us to be busy DOING His work on this earth. I have a poor memory for scripture. I can quote or paraphrase favorite Bible verses… but to sit and tell you, “Hosea 6:6 says ‘I’m after love that lasts; not more religion…’ is probably not going to happen. However, in my own defense, I try to spend a lot of time communicating with God about how and where He wants me to serve… what I can do to honor Him and operate in His will.
You can spout scripture to others until you are blue in the face. But unless you can live out the meaning and intention of that scripture each day… unless you can be the hands and feet of Jesus for real in the everyday world… you are merely spouting scripture. You can go to church every Sunday and take on countless jobs in your church, but if you do not have a heart for loving others with the love of Christ and meeting them where they are each and every day, you’re probably wasting a lot of time.
You can work to garner new members for your church/Sunday-school class/small group/choir and more, but if you are not modeling Christian behavior – from the heart – every day, you are just warming seats with bodies. We need to get real about what God wants from us. He wants a relationship that is interactive and mutually genuine. He wants us to love Him above all else… and to desire to worship Him and serve His purposes more than anything else! Any less is simply not acceptable.
When we think about our relationship with God in these terms, it seems daunting… like a huge responsibility… and it is! But God will never give us more than we can handle. He will never ask more of us than He equips us to accomplish. We have nothing to fear. All we have to do is step up and get to know him.
Study and “book learning” have their place. And I’m glad my brother went to school and got his nursing degree. But that was not what made him a good nurse, any more than organized meetings and services make us faithful Christians. How badly do you want this? How serious are you about your relationship with God? It’s time we asked ourselves the tough questions… and seriously considered our answers. How well do you really know God these days? What are you willing to do to get to know Him better?
©2011 Debbie Robus
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