Communion with God

As mentioned in an earlier post I am currently reading A Quest for Godliness written by J. I. Packer as part of my daily devotional time. This morning I read a section that really spoke to me, and I decided to share it with you.

First, we cannot but conclude that whereas to the Puritans communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it. When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology - but rarely of their daily experience of God. Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service - but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God. Our sermons contain much sound doctrine - but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour. We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters. Thus, we make it plain that communion with God is a smalll thing to us.

From my experience, Packer is absolutely right. As I reflect on my own life and my spiritual journey there have been a few times when I have been overwhelmed by the fact that God was willing to enter my life and adopt me into His family. Occasionally, I will think about how amazing His grace truly is, but I must admit that such times are few and far between. As I think back over 20+ years of preaching, such communion with God has rarely been the topic of any message I have preached. I have taken it for granted and have focused on other aspects of the Christian life. But, isn't such communion really the foundation for all of those other aspects?

In my denomination churches often celebrate the Lord's Supper once a month. Some may only do it quarterly. We often refer to this as communion, and it is conducted in most churches with great reverance with soft organ music playing in the background. However, in reality this celebration is often tacked on at the end of the worship service because it is the appropriate Sunday to schedule it. I fear that most people partaking feel little communion with God during the service. A small glass of grape juice and a dry cracker once a month or once a quarter is a poor substitute for real communion with God.

Once again, Packer has invaded my soul and forced me to think deeply about how incredible it is that a pure, holy God would even consider wanting to relate to such a fallen individual as myself. How imperfect each of us are, and yet a perfect God has chosen to relate to us as a loving Father to his children. He wants to walk with us each day through all the ups and downs that life brings. He has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives that he will bring to pass if we will only stop resisting and allow Him to do so. He wants to lift us out of the foul pits we often place ourselves in and set our feet on solid ground, give us new life, and a renewed sense of joy and peace. And in the process He wants to walk with us through life every single moment of our lives.

I encourage you to take a new look at your life as you read this post. Is your primary focus the relationship you enjoy with God or is it on the things you do for God or the things you hope God will do for you? For me, it is very easy to focus on the things I am doing instead of focusing on the relationship, and I think that might be true of many of us. Packer would encourage us to intentionally focus on the relationship. Never lose sense of the awe that comes when you realize that the Creator of the universe wants to enjoy a relationship with you.