Renewing Simple Truth
Psalm 86:10 ESV says, “For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.”
Something I’ve learned from nearly a decade of worship ministry is that simple truths can become cloudy. When I examine my heart, I often discover that what I need is not something deeper or more profound but rather a renewal of the basic realities of the kingdom. Deep things are worth exploring, but I’ve found that most often, we just need to be reminded every week that God is great and God is good.
Simple truths can become cloudy as we drift from encountering God in his word and by his Spirit. We can know something in our heads but be far from it in our hearts. This was often addressed by the Old Testament prophets. I think of Jeremiah 12:2 ESV, which says, “You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; you are near in their mouth and far from their heart.”
Even in Jeremiah’s time, God’s people struggled with the same things we face today. Having an understanding of God’s ways that doesn’t stick in our hearts. To know something can mean an intellectual idea through observation and learning, or it can mean to have an experience or relationship with something that puts us in a state of knowing.
I can know that God is good because I learned that in church, or I can know that God is good because I’ve experienced his great grace and mercy. I can know that God is merciful because I read about it in the word, or I can know his mercy because I experienced his forgiveness.
This deeper and interactive kind of knowing is critical to a life in Christ. Conviction, belief, and faith are not optional positions in the kingdom of God. If we have unbelief or doubt, we are like shifting sand. Our witness is based on ideas, not a real testimony. Our worship is only intellectual or emotional, or it’s just music and good times. Those who know the Lord worship differently.
When you see something glorious like the Grand Canyon, you experience a sense of awe and wonder at the beauty and scope of the landscape. I’ve never been there, but the experience is certainly more real and engaging than viewing a picture in a book. We can look up pictures and videos of famous celebrities and politicians, but that couldn’t compare to an actual meeting with that person.
God didn’t design his kingdom to be a far-away kingdom, like watching celebrities on TikTok. Ephesians 2:13 ESV tells us, “Now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” We weren’t meant to know God from far away. We were meant to know God through close relationships.
When we drift from the renewal of the word and the Spirit, our mindsets slowly shift. Not right away. The revelation of God’s greatness doesn’t just disappear in a moment, just like the awe of witnessing a beautiful landscape doesn’t immediately disappear from our minds. It wanes as we drift from the places where God encounters us; the image fades the longer we spend away from the beauty.
The good news is that the invitation we have from the Lord is to walk in renewal every single day. Sometimes our devotions look like seeking out new revelation. Sometimes it looks like pausing and remembering that the God you serve is the one and only God. You don’t need to explain that to your heart. You just need to come to the edge of the canyon again and remember.
