God being who he is must always
be sought for Himself, never as a means toward something else.
Whoever seeks other objects and not
God is on his own; he may obtain those objects if he is able, but he will never
have God. God is never found accidentally. “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when
ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Whoever seeks God as a means toward desired ends will not find God.
The mighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, will not be one of many
treasures, not even the chief of all treasures. He will be all in all or He
will be nothing. God will not be used.
His mercy and grace are infinite
and His patient understanding is beyond measure, but He will not aid men in
their selfish striving after personal gain. He will not help men to attain ends
which, when attained, usurp the place He by every right should hold in their
interest and affection.
Yet popular Christianity has as
one of its most effective talking points the idea that God exists to help
people to get ahead in this world. The God of the poor has become the God of an
affluent society. Christ no longer refuses to be a judge or a divider between
money hungry brothers. He can now be persuaded to assist the brother that has
accepted Him to get the better of the brother who has not.
A crass example of the modern
effort to use God for selfish purposes is the well-known comedian who, after
repeated failures, promised someone he called God that if He would help him to
make good in the entertainment world he would repay Him by giving generously to
the care of sick children.
Shortly afterward, he hit the big
time in the night clubs and on television. He has kept his word and is raising
large sums of money to build children’s hospitals. These contributions to
charity, he feels, are a small price to pay for a success in one of the sleaziest
fields of human endeavour.
One might excuse the act of this
entertainer as something to be expected of a ‘twenty-first’ century pagan; but
that multitudes of evangelicals should actually believe that God had anything
to do with the whole business is not so easily overlooked. This low and false
view of Deity is one major reason for the immense popularity God enjoys these
days among well-fed elites in the world.
The teaching of the Bible is that
God is Himself the end for which man was created. “Whom have I in heaven but
thee?” cried the psalmist, “and there is none upon earth that I desire beside
thee” (Psalm 73:25). The first and greatest commandment is to love God with
every power of our entire being. Where love like that exists there can be no
place for a second object. If we love
God as much as we should, surely we cannot dream of a loved object beyond Him
which He might help us to obtain.
Bernard of Clairvaux began his
radiant little treatise on the love of God with a question and an answer. The
question, Why should we love God? The answer, Because He is God. He developed
the idea further, but for the enlightened heart little more need be said. We
should love God because He is God. Beyond this the angels cannot think.
Being who He is, God is to be loved for His own sake. He is the reason
for our loving Him, just as He is the reason for His loving us and for every
other act He has performed, is performing and will perform world without end.
God’s primary reason for everything is His own good pleasure. The search for
secondary reasons is gratuitous and mostly futile. It affords occupation for
theologians and adds pages to books on doctrine, but that it ever turns up any
true explanations is doubtful.
But it is the nature of God to
share. His mighty acts of creation and redemption were done for His good
pleasure, but His pleasure extends to all created things. One has but to look
at a healthy child at play or listen to the song of a bird at sundown and he
will know that God meant His universe to be a joyful one.
Those who have been spiritually
enabled to love God for Himself will find a thousand fountains springing up
from the rainbow-circled throne and bringing countless treasures which are to
be received with reverent thanksgiving as being the overflow of God’s love for
His children. Each gift is a bonus of grace which because it was not sought for
itself may be enjoyed without injury to the soul. These include the simple blessings
of life, such as health, a home, a family, congenial friends, food, shelter,
the pure joys of nature or the more artificial pleasures of music and art.
The effort to find these
treasures by direct search apart from God has been the major activity of
mankind through the centuries; and this has been man’s burden and man’s woe.
The effort to gain them as the ulterior motive back of accepting Christ may be something
new under the sun; but new or old it is an evil that can only bring judgment at
last.
God wills that we should love Him
for Himself alone with no hidden reasons, trusting Him to be to us all our
natures require. Our Lord said all this much better: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
** Written by Aiden Wilson Tozer (A.W. Tozer) **
*** From the Book - "Man: The Dwelling Place of God" ***
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