The other day at the gym, I was listening to worship music, had my headphones on, I was working out. It seemed like only me and God was there in the gym. And I was worshipping in my heart, listening to this wonderful music. You know, the Bible says that our human body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19) So I go to the gym to keep my body healthy and I listen to worship music at the gym to redeem the time. And I have had some wonderful moments of worship in the gym.
On this day, as I was listening to that music, God said, “Go deeper. And call my people to go deeper in me.” Would you like to go deeper in God? Would you like a deeper faith and a closer walk with God? Are you tired of a Christian experience that seems trivial, shallow, a Sunday-morning-only kind of thing? Well if you want to go deeper with God, it would be important to look in the Bible and see what other people did who went deeper, who had their faith and lives transformed and elevated.
Let’s start with Noah. Noah lived in a day when there was much evil. Even as today, in our world, there is much evil. And here’s what the Bible says beginning at Genesis 6:5:
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth. And He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air. For I am sorry that I had made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
This passage is recounting is the days before the flood and is telling us that something terrible was going to happen in Noah’s day. But Noah found grace. And because of the grace that was on his life, he was able to hear from God and built an arc, and saved himself and his family. He went deeper with God because of that grace on his life, and he was able to hear from God. And because of all this, he was able to save essentially all of mankind. So the first principle of going deeper with God is to recognize, it is not by our works or anything we do, but is by the grace of God — by the special favor as a result of the love of God. Now here’s what the Bible says about grace in Ephesians 2:4:
“But God who is rich and mercy because of His great love with which He loved us. Even when we we’re dead and trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And has raises us up together and made us to sit in the heavenly places with Jesus. That in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.”
So grace is all about how much God loves you and me. He loves you and me so much that He has given us the grace to go deeper if we want it. So the first principle again is to recognize that what we’re talking about is going deeper with God. It’s built on the idea that it is only by grace that we can go deeper. And where does this grace come from? John 1:17 reads:
“For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
So that’s the story of Noah, how he went deeper because of the grace of God. Praise God for His generosity and the amazing grace that He pours out on us every morning.
That principle, that you can only dive deeper into a relationship with God by His grace, is enough to give you a deeper relationship with God. But I have a couple more principles that I think will edify you. For the second principle that will lead you into a deeper relationship with God, click here.
