Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your tabernacle.
(Psalm 43:3)
IN AN AGE WHEN IT’S POPULAR FOR PEOPLE TO MAKE UP THEIR OWN SPIRITUALITY, IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THE VITAL ROLE OF TRUTH. If God is an objective reality, then neither He nor the path by which we may approach Him are matters of subjective opinion. We are not at liberty (1) to set the terms of our own salvation, or (2) to define anything as “worship” that suits our fancy.
Yet this is the day of “feel good” religion. When it comes to God’s character, we envision Him in any way that is congenial to us, and when it comes to religious practice, we reject anything that does not stroke our self-image. Yet truth is what we need, at all costs. Imagine yourself on the deck of the Titanic as it began to sink. It might have made you feel better to be told the ship wasn’t sinking and that everything was fine. But wouldn’t the truth have been more valuable? As hard as it might have been to deal with reality, doing that would have been the only way to survive.
Spiritually, we are where we are right now because of “darkness.” The distorted versions of reality that our adversary has presented to us have darkened our understanding to such an extent that we’re incapable of finding our way back to God. The answer to David’s question, “Who can understand his errors?” (Psalm 19:12), is that no one can — unless that person allows the light of God’s truth to dispel the darkness and reveal the way back home. Our prayer ought to be the same as William Cowper’s hymn: “O for a closer walk with God, / A calm and heavenly frame, / A light to shine upon the road / That leads me to the Lamb!”
It’s a wonderful truth that God can be known, and an even more wonderful truth that we can be redeemed from our sins and brought back to Him. But our redemption won’t be accomplished if we’re not willing to know God as He truly is, and it’s primarily in the language of the Scriptures that He reveals Himself as He truly is. The only question is: what will we do with this information?
“The sacred page is not meant to be the end, but only the means toward the end, which is knowing God himself” (A. W. Tozer).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
