Some of us are not very adventurous when it comes to travel. For myself, it takes me way out of my comfort zone. But having a husband who loves to travel, I have learned that to experience the beauty and wonder of this big world we need to go beyond our comfort zone, and that if I hadn't stepped out I would have missed out on so much.
Imagine if you were to travel to a foreign country where your passport is stamped and your luggage cleared for entry, but you decide to stay at the airport. You feel safer there, rather than venturing out into unknown territory.
You can say that you’ve been there – you have the stamp on your passport to show it – but you have not experienced the country, the culture, the sights, sounds and smells. All you can say is “It was a nice, very comfortable airport. I spoke to other travelers who had been there and I read some interesting tourist brochures, so now I know all about it.”
Could some of us be doing that with our relationship with God? We’ve arrived at the airport and our passport is stamped, and we’re reading and learning some good stuff about Him. But we haven’t explored the depths of who He is, and we haven’t experienced Him outside of our comfort zone.
To experience the wonder and awe of God we need to move out of the airport.
God wants us to know Him! To recognise Him in everything, to be closely acquainted with Him, and to understand who He is. He wants us to be passionate and persistent in our endeavour to know Him. To give Him our full attention, and to listen to and obey Him, hanging on to His every word for our lives. To cherish Him; to hold Him dear and to cling to Him, hating the thought of hurting His heart.
It’s more than just saying the right words or having the right feelings towards Him. It requires a deep heart change where we surrender to Him, put aside all that would keep us from Him and take hold of all that Jesus has done at the cross. It requires persistence and devotion, because every moment there are so many things vying for our hearts in this world. It doesn’t require perfection but it requires our all, imperfect and flawed as it is. We will fail and we will be disappointed in ourselves sometimes but God will always forgive, always love, and always believe in us, because Jesus is our perfect Saviour, and through His Holy Spirit living in us He empowers us to do His will.
He has given us all we need. All He wants is our hearts.
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