I hate
seeing marriages end. It is always sad
when two people, who at one time loved each other, go their separate ways.
It is just
as sad, though, when people stay together physically, but leave
emotionally. Unfortunately, I know too many
people for whom marriage has become nothing more than business
proposition. They live together and
share the expenses, but their relationship is joyless, uninteresting and boring.
Their hearts are no longer invested and
they have stopped growing as a couple. It
is sad when something that was exciting gets boiled down to something mundane,
ordinary and is taken for granted.
As sad as
that situation is in a marriage, it is absolutely deadly in spiritual things! We are missing something vital when serving
God moves from being a privilege to being a duty. We are in big trouble when spiritual things are
boiled down to “keeping the rules” and “being faithful”, rather than being
changed and made more like God.
One of the
best examples of this comes from the story known as “The Prodigal Son”. In Luke 15, Jesus tells about a man who had
two sons. The younger took his
inheritance, left and wasted everything.
Eventually, he “came to his senses” (verse 17) and went back home. His father, who had been watching for him,
celebrated his return. It is a great
story, but that is only half of it.
The older
brother refused to celebrate. In fact,
he was angry and said, “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never
disobeyed your orders. Yet you never
gave me (anything)” (verse 29). He kept
the rules. He stayed and did what he was
supposed to do. The problem, however, was
that he did not like it! His service brought
him no joy. It was simply his duty. He served his father and did what he asked,
but (and here is the big issue) he had not become like his father! He had not developed a heart like his father’s
and because of that the older brother was just as lost the younger one.
As Jesus
noted at another time, “These people honour me with their lips, but their
hearts are far from me” (Mark 7:6). That
was not a compliment! In many ways, a joyless
faith is as ineffective as no faith at all.
Therefore,
my simple prayer today is that we would know not only God’s commands, but also
God’s heart.
After all,
in faith, as with most things, going through the motions is not enough.
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