"Holding God Hostage"

Sometimes we are not as aware in our relationship to God. We talk about how blessed we are, (and we are), how wonderful our family, (both physical and church), are doing and look at the things God is doing (and has done) in our lives. We sing praises to God, which is fitting for the saved. What can be wrong with all the above? It makes me wonder, I am thinking out loud for us to ponder something, do we love the sound of our voices and praise of our lives more than who is our God?

Listen to our Bible classes/studies. We judge the success of a class/study on how much participation was encountered! People speak openly and they go on and on about this or that. It seems they have to literally be cut off to continue. One brother opens up a point about his life. Another sister pours in her two cents worth and the blessings of God in her life. Then other illustrations are added from personal experiences and it goes on and on. After it is over we hear, "What a good study we had today!" Have we ever thought that maybe what God was trying to say to us was drowned out with all the voices of experiences?

Too many studies are are 'hijacked' by all this self-gazing! We gather to hear something from God and end up holding God hostage because we have too much to say! We take the gifts of blessings we receive from God and speak of them so much that we drown out the voice of God. I am not advocating we are not to be thankful and show thanks for His wonderful, bountiful blessings toward us, His children. We simply get caught up on all these blessed experiences and they get in the way to listening to what God wanted to speak with us about!! "Why today, we covered one verse!!"

Praising and being thankful to God is fitting for those in Christ! BUT SO IS LISTENING! We would gain so much more in our praises to the Lord if we would slow down all the talk about the wonderful things He has done for us and the things He has brought us through and simply listen to Him speak! Sometimes I can almost hear the voice of God say, "Okay, I know you can sing well and I hear your thankfulness for what I have done for you and you express that but let Me tell you some deeper things to enrich your lives!"

We seem to have lost our way in all this moral excellence and we miss being confronted with the Almighty God! We read about the woman caught in adultery (John 8) and we begin to uncover many moral principles that we talk about. We leave our study and never heard one word God speaks!!! Solomon was right on when he penned the words, "Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil." (Eccl. 5:1)

I pray that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened so we can be filled with the knowldege of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. (Paul penned those inspired words in Col. 1:9.) I pray the Lord would bring to us rich teachers and wise leaders who can keep us from wandering all over the place, keep us from self-gazing by offering us the voice of God with His enriching truth that will make our relationship more meaningful and precious. May we stop looking inward and fix our eyes on Him with an humble heart to listen. Too many brethren are holding God hostage in our studies and worship and they call it a good study! God forgive us!!!