Religion, to a lot of us, is usually about accepting something intellectually — “That makes sense” or “I understand that.” But there’s a huge difference between information about God and a relationship with God. Do you know about God or do you know God?
We think emotion is suspect. We think religion should not be emotional. Emotion lets you down. It’s not real. It doesn’t last. You have to keep your wits about you. Use your brains. Be calm and collected. Use your intellect. Faith is not emotional.
We in the Church have usually said, “If I can get your head, your heart will follow.” If I can prove it to you with logical arguments, you’re there. And, praise God, sometimes that works.
But my real experience tells me it’s just the opposite. Your head will always be where your heart is. If I can get your heart, your head will always follow. Where your heart is, that’s where I’m going to find your time, your money, your energy, your body, your head, every bit of you.
Think about it: nobody ever loves God with all their heart and not their head. But we have plenty of people in the Church who have God in their heads but their hearts are stone.
The Word of God captures our hearts. What the Lord has done for us grabs our hearts. The starting point is in our emotions. He wants our hearts. I look at the women in Mark 5 and Mark 7 who did not have a full understanding of who Jesus was or what he was all about. They had no clue about his mission to suffer and die and be raised again for the salvation of the world. But they reached out to him. And Jesus praised them for their faith. Faith in what? Faith in him. An imperfect faith. An incomplete faith. But a faith, nontheless, that God honored by bringing physical and spiritual healing to them.
When you were baptized, could the devil have given all the same answers to the questions you were asked? Satan knows that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. When you were studying before your baptism, could the devil have answered all the questions about God’s plan of salvation and God’s commands and the Lord’s Supper the same way you did?
Even the devil knows all the right answers up in his head.
What makes your relationship with God different than his?
Where’s your heart?
Peace,
Allan
Stanglin,
Great post.
When the Apostle Paul writes, “I consider everything a loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8) he wasn’t referring to knowing a well thought out sytstem of beliefs.
His heart’s desire is to “know” Christ. To engage, not a system, but a person.
Certainly we must know what we believe and why, but genuine faith is the pursuit of Christ….
When we reduce our faith down to head knowledge and not heart “knowledge”… well… it really isn’t faith is it?
Later,
Jason Reeves