Filled By God With God By God

in Spirituality By Mccuon on 24 May 2014

No one can live without a sense of purpose and direction, a sense that his/her life has significance as part of a cosmic story. We are living at a time when there are seismic changes in society. We may limp along for a while, extracting small installments of meaning from short term goals like earning a degree, landing a job, getting married, establishing a family, a flambeaux of modern Christian society that has made us blind, so that even as we look we can see but cannot see through and beyond. But at some point, these temporal things fail to fill the deep hunger and yearning for eternal contentment in the human spirit that the heart is ever pursuant. For we were made for God and every part of our personality is oriented towards a relationship with Him.

Hardly will a day pass without a man thinking about his life. Even the beggar who sits on streets thinks as much about his life as to compel him to beg money at least to add some few days to his beggarly life. We try to dismiss the thought and to suppress it. But even today, you’ve engaged in some moment of self-examination and self-evaluation about what you want to make of your life, even though it spurned a millisecond. Some of us are doing that right now. These questions are three-fold:

• Have I made my life count so far?
• Am I making my life count today?
• Will my life count tomorrow and for eternity?

Don’t make something in life. Make something of your life. Don’t detach life from the things you do. Let life be the thing you do.

John 1:16: “And of his fullness have ALL we received, and grace for grace.” This is a reality that should permeate the life of every believer. John is saying that this has already taken place in the life of the believer, if He (Jesus Christ) has come.

All His fullness? Yes. In us? Yes. And we have received it? Yes.

His grace? And grace for grace? Yes. And we have received this too? Yes.

But if we have received this fullness, and this grace for grace, why are majority of Christians so unsatisfied? Why have so many become busybodies? Why are so many bored? Why do so many feel empty and disappointed and frustrated and despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected, always grumbling and given to pouting, living a raved, depressed and confused life? Why has the love of so many waxed cold? Why have so many become hypocritical and perplexed? Why has Christianity become just another religion- a response to a mere act of will-power and duty?

Here is the answer. So many of us started in the spirit but the strong affections we once felt for God have been puffed up and we just putter around on parched grounds of a past prelude. The affluence of the affections that filled and swept our souls, and which we once cherished in God has degenerated and come to be its own exceeding agony. The pristine faith we once dearly held has withered and shriveled up, being replaced with a heaven-high facade clouded with pebbles that make our lives so busy but meaningless. To many, salvation has become a pre-emptive strategy from the worldliness of sin. We are just taking salvation and docking it at a safe anchorage, where the rummages of the seething sea waves cannot reach.

A boat in the harbor is a safe boat but that’s not what boats are made for. We’ve got so many imposters living within the walls of the church.We are comfortable to live within the walls of the church and secure our own safety, but never to live within its life and ensure the safety and perpetuity of the church. To many, the aura of worship often dissipates, appearing this minute and disappearing in the next. And with the feeling of guilt that we are leading a purposeless life, comes the fear of death. And we do not fear death because it stings, but because it will meet us at a point where we have made nothing of this life. For a Christian, fearing death is tantamount to fearing life.It is very easy for you to slip through life without taking any risks; without making your life count, count for something infinitely great, and infinitely beautiful, and infinitely valuable, and infinitely satisfying. I am not here to save you or help you avoid a wounded life, but to help you avoid a wasted life.

In life I have discovered that there are three main reasons why people die:

• A wasted life,
• An exhausted life, or
• A passion-consumed life

We know so many people who have lived a wasted life, Christians not unbelievers. These are people who are content with the gifts of God, but are never interested in knowing and savoring the Source of the blessings. No purpose, they are satisfied with themselves.

We as well know Christians who have died of exhausted lives. These are the people who live a purely duty-driven life. They are led by dogma, ritualistic adherence to virtue; life patterned against some outward creed and has a very legalistic relationship with God. Pleasure and joy are words never to be found in these people’s dictionary. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They live a life guided by a certain realm of formalism and church traditions. These are the people who simply live for a purpose other than which they were created for.

For a passion-consumed life, well, this is where we will focus our attention. For a passion-consumed life, death brings glory. Daily dying produces eternal life. Daily-cross bearing produces eternal rest. It is centered on Savoring God, becoming God-centered. Letting your entire life be a reflection of your relationship with God. You were made for God! It’s humbling ourselves to let Christ become all that He is in us. To let Him be the treasure chest of holy joy that satisfies. Jesus gave His life for us, to take our lives from us and live His life through us.

John Piper: “When you become so blind that the maker of the galaxies and ruler of nations and knower of mysteries and lover of our souls becomes boring, then only one thing is left-the love of the world. For the heart is always restless. It must have its treasure: if not in heaven, then on the earth.

If you don’t see the greatness of God then all the things that money can buy become very exciting. If you can’t see the sun you will be impressed with the street light. If you have never felt thunder and lightning, you’ll be impressed with fireworks. And if you turn your back on the greatness of God you’ll fall in love with a world of shadows and short-lived pleasures.

The beginning of a full life starts with an in-filling by God. And this in-filling must be by God and with God. What makes the difference is not whether we are filled, but what has filled us. If you are not filled with God, you will be filled with gods. Let’s base our life on passion; a passionate drenching in His Truth; a passionate faith in Him; a passionate seeking of His kingdom and His righteousness; a passionate veneration of His name; a passionate exuberance and reverence for His holiness; a passionate exultation in His glory.

Then you can join Paul: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death…” (Ephesians 3:10). “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”(Colossians 2:9).

Be filled by God, with God and for God.

Geoffrey Ndarugu    4th year Economics