A Never-Ending Event

A Never-Ending Event

1989 1 January 10 A Never-Ending Event (347) If one’s thoughts are constantly centered on God, one will repeatedly come upon new and greater aspects of His glory. Different facets of His virtues will appear time and time again, bathed in an eternal, divine light. Just as God’s virtues are infinite, so is the believer’s search for knowledge of God unending.

Faith is the discovery of that limitless reality – God. In space and time He is never-ending, so that discovering him is likewise a never-ending, ongoing event. That is the bedrock of true religion. A well-known scientist once reflected that if a day came and went Without his having discovered anything new in nature, he felt that that day had been wasted, for, as he said, “Observing nature is my religion.” If this is the feeling of one who is absorbed in God’s creation, how can one who is absorbed in the Creator Himself feel any different? Just as the scientist discovers something new in the world of creation every day, so a believer should always be making fresh discoveries about his Creator – discoveries which should strengthen him in his faith.

If one’s thoughts are constantly centered on God, one will repeatedly come upon new and greater aspects of His glory. Different facets of His attributes will appear time and time again, bathed in an eternal, divine light. Just as God’s attributes are infinite, so is the believer’s search for knowledge of God unending.

Satisfaction of this quest for knowledge takes many forms. Sometimes it takes the form of divine states never before experienced. Sometimes it expresses itself in words of praise for the Almighty never before conceived of. Sometimes some aspect of God’s wisdom – hitherto unrevealed – becomes as clear as crystal. Sometimes one simply feels unusually close to God. And sometimes one suddenly feels capable of plumbing the depths of profound and awesome truths.

If discovery of God is a never ending event, the converse is also true. Faith that does not grow is no faith at all. It is an expression rather of religious neglect – neglect of Almighty God, our Creator and Sustainer.