Bored Faith
“So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’”
Today’s Text: 1 Corinthians 14:13-25 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
The secrets of people’s hearts are laid bare whenever the word of God is proclaimed.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
— Hebrews 4:12-13
The word of God is not deficient in that regard. But the spiritual sensitivity of people has been dulled by rationalism and materialism. And so if unbelievers hear a prophetic word so that “the secrets of their hearts are laid bare,” they easily convince themselves that the word was just a coincidence, at best, or just completely miss the relevance to their lives.
Of course, nonbelievers do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin, and so they might be excused. Believers don’t have that excuse. And yet, we do have believers whose spiritual sensitivity has been dulled by rationalism and materialism, too, including myself.
The key phrase for me in this passage is “God is really among you.” Do we really recognize that God is really among us when we gather in His name? And if we don’t recognize that God is really among us, is He really among us, then?
I long to experience and feel the presence and power of God in my life. But I will admit that sometimes my heart and mind battle with routine and familiarity. I don’t see anything new and intriguing to capture my attention and emotion. Am I becoming bored with being a Christian? More and more, we are cursed with shorter and shorter attention spans and the need for new experiences. Am I just seeking spiritual entertainment?
Should not the presence and power of God transcend any tradition, ritual, or religion that we practice? Should not the presence and power of God transcend every human experience?
In my mind, I know that to be true. But my flesh is always pulling me down to the earth. We formulate and develop experiences to help us draw closer to God, but the great irony is that great experiences may actually draw us further away from God, because God is not in the experience. God is God. And God is Spirit. And we encounter God spirit to Spirit in loving fellowship and relationship, regardless of the “sphere” that we devise for the “experience.”
Father, You are majestic, holy, and righteous beyond understanding. I long to be able to experience Your glory. But I know that I can’t handle Your glory. Nevertheless, I pray that You would show us more of Your power, more of Your glory, that we may worship You and not some empty experience. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
