Over the past few years, the message I have preached most often has been this: “Come to the living Jesus, not dead scriptures.” When I share the gospel on the streets, I also emphasize this point: no matter how perfect the Scripture we possess may be, we do not have the ability to follow it fully, nor can we ever reach the perfect standard of God’s righteousness. Yet, remarkably, God loved us so much that, although He did not have to, He sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world as a human being. Jesus died on the cross in our place, making salvation an unconditional gift.
Even though humanity departed from God long ago and no longer knows clearly who He is, people instinctively long for their Creator. They imagine what God must be like and assume that certain actions are required to approach Him. In their efforts to please God and meet the standards for salvation, they have devised severe ascetic practices, good deeds, and complex religious rituals. In contrast, the true God tells us that all we need to do is seek Jesus Christ, who bore all our sins and shortcomings and died for us. In that sense, the spirituality of other religions is about our desperate efforts to be acknowledged by God, whereas Christian spirituality is about abiding in the love of God who has already fully accepted us.
Therefore, no matter how many flaws we have, we can come boldly before God, who forgives and embraces us completely. When we sin, rather than making excuses or tormenting ourselves with guilt, we should honestly acknowledge our sin and sincerely turn away from it. When our thoughts and emotions spiral out of control because of deep wounds, we do not need to hide them from God. We can bring everything to Him as it is, trusting that He will comfort and restore us.
Yet many Christians still think of the Christian life as something they must strive hard to accomplish. That is not the case. What truly matters is continually coming before God. This is what “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) means. Good deeds and service are certainly important, but for those to be done well, it is even more important to keep coming before God. Coming before Him does not mean wandering around trying to find where He is. He already dwells within us, so our souls simply need to be aware of Him and fix our gaze on Him at all times and in all places.
Even if our lives feel broken and chaotic, like a filthy room in complete disarray that we do not know how to clean up, if we continue to look to God, we will grow strong spiritually. We will become capable of keeping God’s Word, which once seemed impossible to obey. That is why, if we want our lives to become firmly established, we must devote ourselves to worship that is oriented toward God. Corporate worship in the church goes without saying, but in our daily lives we must also become worshipers who seek God personally.
This winter retreat, the central focus of our efforts was worship. There is no doubt that we will be strengthened through it. Even after the retreat ends and we return to our everyday lives, if we continue in worship, we can walk in deeper intimacy with God. Peter calls those who believe in Jesus “a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5). This means that our identity is that of worshipers, and worship is our primary calling. Christian spirituality is very simple and easy. It is simply this: going to God.
