Appearance and Reality: Part 5 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning.

We’ve been talking all this week about the difference between appearance and reality in our lives and in our relationship with God and with other people. It’s so easy to fall into a performance mentality about our lives and about how we want to come across to other people when what’s really going on inside is so very different from what’s coming out on the surface.

It doesn’t mean that with everybody around you, you bare your soul and unpack all the issues of your life.

No, that’s not what you want. That’s not what they want, and that’s not what God wants for you either.

But rather, he’s looking for honesty, for reality to be coming from your life.

So that you’re not praying in front of other people and just thinking about how good do I sound when I pray with people, you’re not just giving because there’s an expectation about giving financially at church or to charity, or you’re not giving and then making a big deal about it so everyone knows that you gave because you want to get some kind of credit from people about that.

You’re not even sacrificing in some way in order to get recognition from people about what kind of great person you are. No! You’re living your Christian life out of your love for God who loves you so much, and you’re building a deep personal relationship with Him that then overflows into your life.

You know, from the beginning of the Bible to the end, what you see about God is that He is always taking the initiative, right? He’s not hanging back. He’s not aloof. He’s not that person in the corner that’s so hard to get to know. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to talk to you because they really want to just be private. That’s not God, right?

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The God we see in the Bible is a God who loves people, who created us out of an overflow of the love that was in his heart.

And wants to build a relationship with us and even when people throughout the Bible are really dishonoring God, walking away from Him, being sinful, being hurtful to him.

God doesn’t ignore that and say, Oh, it’s all good. No, he does deal with people, give them the consequences of their choices. But even then he reaches out to them and says, But make things right with me. I’m so ready to have a good relationship with you. What I want is to bless you and not to give you these negative consequences. He’s always taking the initiative, even when you think about your own life, wouldn’t you say that’s true.

Even when you’re distant from God, and maybe you’d say that’s right now in my life, but don’t you know deep in your heart that God is reaching out to you. Right, He’s reaching out to you.

He wants you to stop trying to just put on the surface this performance to other people like everything’s great and you’re a strong Christian or a person who’s in touch with God. No, don’t perform. Build a real relationship with God.

In the book of Isaiah.

The people of Israel have really fallen away from God at this point in the Bible, and God says to the prophet Isaiah this about His people. He says, These people come near to me with their mouth. And they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules that they have been taught. (Isaiah 29:13 – NIV).

Well, would you say that describes your Christianity?

It basically consists of human rules that you’ve been taught, rules of behavior.

That when you come near to God, you sing the songs with other people on Sunday you honor Him with your lips. But what about your heart? Is your heart far from God?

Well, if it is, you know that you’re experiencing the consequences of that in your life, right? There’s a distance between you and God. He’s not involved in the way you want him to be, and the answer is to come close to him again.

To begin spending time with him, read his Bible. Listen to him. Respond to him as he speaks to you, and watch him turn your performance into reality.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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