View from the Thinking Bench

Think-stops are good in life.  Sometimes, spiritual wisdom needs to settle in our hearts before we can share it with others. Recently, someone who is going through faith struggles asked, “How can I hear God speak?”  The easy reply is, “The Holy Spirit helps us hear Him.”  But that’s not always enough for the people seeking more of God.

A good answer to that comes from writings of respected Christian author and pastor A.W. Tozer (1897-1963).  Tozer knew how to reduce deep issues to terms that people could understand.  In the last chapter of his book, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), he said the secret of knowing God is to:

1. Forsake our sins. 
2. Commit our whole life to Christ in faith.
3. Reckon ourselves dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus, and open to the Holy Spirit and the disciplines He requires. 
4. Repudiate the cheap values of the fallen world and become detached in spirit from it.
5. Practice the art of long and loving meditation on the majesty of God.
6. Obey the imperative of greater service to our fellow men as knowledge of God becomes more wonderful.

I’m glad my friend wants to have a deeper relationship with God. But working through this list with honesty will bring pain. It’s apt to pry open festering problems that need a spiritual antiseptic.

Such cleansing doesn’t happen easily when our worlds are cluttered with media and other false busyness. It often helps to get off alone, to some sort of “thinking bench.” When open-hearted and alone with God, we’re apt to be more receptive to the Holy Spirit’s teaching.  He’s already waiting to teach us how God sees us through the sacrificial lens of Calvary love.