One of the reasons why we give way to sin is not that we love our sinning too much, it’s that we love God too little. He’s ceased to be great in our eyes. We lose the ‘fear of God’ within us.
At some point before his great fall from grace in his sin with Bathsheba, David lost sight of the greatness of God. We don’t know how it happened. But it happened. Maybe he got careless. Maybe he got bored. Maybe he traded in the relationship he had with God for religion and ritual. But it set him up for great sin.
It’s like a spiritual math equation – when the love and fear of God go up in a heart or a nation, evil goes down. When the love and fear of God goes down in a heart, or a nation, evil goes up. (Sound like a country near you?)
Maybe one of the reasons you don’t get much out of the Bible or find church dull is that you’ve gotten way too comfortable with your sin, and you have no intention of fighting it or giving it up. If that’s you, don’t expect to feel all sorts of warm-fuzzies with Jesus. You won’t find him all that special. But trust me: He didn’t die on that cross so you could keep wallowing in foolish living. He died to show you the path to real life and freedom.
The philosopher Voltaire said in so many words that even if there were no God, we would have to invent one, because people behave better when they believe that there’s a God looking on before whom they must one day stand and explain their lives. (Jihadists are probably the one exception to this rule.)
Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.”
Remove the fear of God and all bets are off. It’s in a secular society where God is not regarded as great where you will find fetal body parts being harvested for sale, growing violence on the streets, and schools that have become like armed camps. Remove the fear of God and you will find humans acting less and less human. The belief that humans are created in the image of a very great God is a great protective for a society.
That David after his repentance once again came to a place in his life where he could proclaim the greatness of God was a sign that he got his mojo back. How about you?
When your soul grows dull, here are some things you can do to recover a proper view of God’s greatness:
- Take time to marvel at the beauty and grandeur of creation.
- Think deeply about the sufferings of Christ. Fix your eyes on Jesus (Heb.12:2)
- Decide which life philosophy you want to live by. You have two choices. a. Ashley Madison: “Life is short. Have an affair.” Or b. Jesus: “Life is eternal. Pick up your cross and follow me.”
- Review in your mind the rewards of faith in Christ. “Forget not his benefits.” (Ps.103:2)
- Or just go ahead and keep sinning. Enjoy the payday: dullness, guilt, uncleanness, scattered-thinking, agitation. Have fun with that.
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