Stale Bread

“Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.” A.W. Tozer.

I love spending time with my children but as grown adults they are so very busy. There are times when I am with them that I can tell they have carved a little bit of time for me out of obligation…because it is the thing to do. There are other times when we are together that I can tell their hearts are really in it and the shared joy is pure…authentic…engaged. I share this with you because I sometimes do this with God. I go through my spiritual checklist…listen to worship music…lift a prayer…do the Bible Study…write the blog. But I must say that sometimes that checklist seems more like an obligation than a joyful privilege. I know that God can sense my stale prayers, empty worship and hurried meditation in His word. This morning I was struck by this quote from A. W. Tozer. When I read the short sentence ‘He waits to be wanted’ tears filled my eyes and conviction struck my heart. I know that I have been disengaged this week and I can feel the spiritual chasm. I have been that child who has shown up this week because she was supposed to. I have marked through the spiritual to-do’s only to leave my time with God the same way my heart approached Him…unchanged…unmoved…disengaged. This week I have been feeding on stale bread instead of the fresh bread He promises us each day.

Stale bread has no worth except as a crumbled topping and certainly cannot fill the cravings of hunger. It’s amazing to me how God can take 5 little words…He waits to be wanted…and awaken my heart to desire more. He fully understands when we approach Him out of obligation instead of joyful intimacy. But even in our complacency, He welcomes us. Even in our lazy attempts to fellowship He fully engages with us. He makes time for us no matter our approach because He promises to never leave us even if we are absent in spirit. Our heart of worship is what He wants us to bring to Him, not our spiritual checklist. It is interesting to me that God waits on us just as much as we wait on God. I never want to think that God’s pursuit of me is in vain.

I'm sick of stale bread this week and I'm so thankful that God never closes the kitchen. He calls us back to the table regardless of how many meals we have missed with Him. He longs to share His best with each of us. When our worship is authentic and our desire for God is great, Christ will be manifested in all of our lives. We must never settle for stale bread when sharing time with Jesus.

"For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33 NKJV)