Are You Hungry?

Lately I have been consistently spending an hour a day alone with God. Subsequently, I have been reading a book called Radical by David Platt. This book is really changing my perspective on how we, as Americans, look at God. America is home to a large variety of religions, but of those who call themselves Christians, how many of them only view God as that person you come and talk about twice a year on Christmas and Easter? How many of us are satisfied with only talking about him for an hour or two one a week on Sunday? One of my good friends from Frazer once compared reading your Bible and praying to God to eating. You, as a human being, cannot survive if you do not eat. In the same way, you cannot grow spiritually in your relationship with God if you do not read the Bible and pray to God daily. Now, in Radical, Platt spends the first chapter talking about what is wrong with our idea of God as Americans. Here, where we have freedom of religion, we really do take God and his word for granted. We get up on Sunday morning, put on a nice, expensive set of clothes, get in our really expensive car of choice, drive a few miles in our air conditioned cars to a gigantic, elaborate church building, go into a nice, well lit, air conditioned building, and talk about God for a one or two hours while sitting in comfortable chairs, usually eating some kind of free food which is provided. Platt paints a picture of an average church meeting in a country in Asia where organized religion is illegal. He tells of how church leaders leave their homes early in the morning at planned, offset time intervals as to not arrive at the same time and draw suspision, some of them walking or bicycling dozens of miles to a broken down shack in the middle of nowhere with no air conditioning, to meet on the ground, with no chairs, no food, and talk about how the churches that they are trying to start or maintain are being torn apart by government or anti-Christian organizations who kidnap their church members and torture them or threaten to kill their entire families if they do not stop studying God's word. So I have to ask, are you hungry? Do you really appreciate what you have been given, not only in your worldly comforts, but in your ability to study God's word and speak about it with others openly? It should not be a chore to have to go to church or to read your Bible or to pray, it should be the absolute delight of your life. You should want to do it all the time because it brings you great joy and fills your life with happiness. I know that it is quickly becoming the joy of my days, and I truly pray that everyone can get to this same point of happiness and delight in God, the relationship that His son Jesus Christ has made available to us, and delight in reading the Bible, which God has left for us. Praying for you! Have a great day!
PS-You should really get a copy of Radical by David Platt, you can pick it up anywhere because it has quickly made the NYTimes best seller list for good reason.