the art of following darkness

It's tragic and grieves my heart that so many people, believers and non-believers, walk through life being comfortable with mediocrity. They are not troubled with the fact that sin continues to reoccur daily with little or no remorse. Not many of us truly grieve for the sins that we've committed. We are taught at some point in this lifetime to look through "the eyes of reason" (Oswald Chambers). Surely, if we can educate ourselves and acquire the basic knowledge we need to make it, then we will someday evolve into a life passionately lived for God. It is sin that has caused this mindset. One will never be able to control sin without the Father. Sin is impulsive, foolish, and unmanageable. It is a simple fact of life and we go on everyday not recognizing that it will overshadow God in our lives and it will kill the life we have with God. For too many of us this is accepted or overlooked. We let sin get in the way of our thinking. It changes our focus from being on God to the worries we have, the relationships we are in, the hassles of everyday life, etc. We must choose to abide in Christ or have sin in our lives, because we cannot have both. One must kill the other.

When will it grieve your heart to sin against God? If sin does not bring grief to your heart read two passages for me (Hebrews 10:26-39, Isaiah 53) and then if it still doesn't, I ask you to examine your heart. We are content with the art of following darkness. The art of following darkness can be several variations of a believers walk, but it comes down to this:



they follow their own selfish ambitions, they won't let go of their old self, and they confuse or make their ambitions the false will of God in their life. They are following darkness when this is occurring; there is no lamp to lead them through the paths in the darkness (2 Samuel 22:29). If this is the case, I ask you, where is your heart? Our relationship with God has become second, third, or nineteenth to other "more important" things. The thought process of believers is like this so often. It's not that God is always in some other position than first in our lives because at times He is our main focus but what will it take for us to, daily, make God our supreme focus. "When God is the supreme hunger of our hearts, he will be supreme in everything." John Piper
Reference -- Desire and Hunger for God: Psalm 42, Psalm63, Psalm 73:25, Psalm 143:6, Isaiah 26:8&9, and Amos 8:11.

Do you want to base your life on your business success or worldly goals, or do you want to build your life with God (John 14:23, 1 John 2:15-17). When I was approaching graduation from Levelland High School, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So I turned to those closest to me and we pondered and discussed what I would be good at. We (I say we because it was never fully my decision, I always listened to others) came to the conclusion that I should major in engineering. I mean it made perfect sense. I loved math and science and I had a foot in the door with an oilfield company. My decision was made and for two and a half years of school I stuck with it. Everything was going as planned, the deeper in got into school the closer I was to getting a job and being a success. I would graduate from Texas A&M University and I had a job practically waiting on me. Nothing could stray my focus away from my goals and I would be wealthy and totally happy, with financial security, within five years. I was set. Then, it all fell apart. The girl I had been dating for the past three and a half years was no longer apart of my life. To my recollection we broke up just to see if we would stay broken up, basically. I hated engineering and I decided to drop out of all of my classes for the semester. It was at this point that God began to push my eyelids open that I might be able to see him again. One night in my parent's house in the first of January of 2001 He broke me. I've never seen my ambitions the same. In fact, those desires of wealth and prosperity have been gone since that day. I had once been a person who worked God into my life. I was once a follower of my own selfish ambitions and I always had good intentions of changing them, but it would be on my time, at my convenience. I was apart of, as A. W. Tozer said, "A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions, and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit; these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul." Have we become an age of believers that adjusts God to our lifestyles and ambitions? Yes, far too many of us have. And I'll quote Tozer one more time. He said, "Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and bring Him nearer to our own image." Are our egos this big and our pride too hard to swallow, that we would attempt to change the God that gives us life every morning?

Where is your heart? Is it focused on your plans for your future or is it consumed with the Word of God and the desire for Him? Ask God to examine your heart (Psalm 26:2). He has called us to search our hearts so that the desires we harbor are revealed to us (2 Corinthians 13:5, Lamentations 3:40). I urge you not to be worried that God will reveal your shortcomings. He will rather reveal to you his love and let you know the nature of your heart. If your heart is focused on God, He will most definitely encourage you and push you in the direction to grow. I challenge you to not only examine your heart but when God reveals things to you, do not turn your back (Deuteronomy 28:14) to him like you've done in the past but kneel before Him.
Father, I bow my head at your feet realizing that you are my God. Every ounce of you radiates your glory, and I ask you to allow me to glorify your name in my life. Take my heart and show me. My desire is you, my hunger is you and I pray that you will take me deeper with you. Increase this appetite for your knowledge and truth. May I be able to speak of you in the morning and throughout my day, please bless me with those opportunities. Take my heart in your hands and mold me. You are my love, my rock, my heart and soul. I love you. -- Amen