THE HUNGER FOR A RENEWED SPIRITUALITY

The Kingdom of God is the most exciting venture...ever!  There is nothing like it.  No other system can present both the thrill and the intrigue.  Yet, those of us in church leadership have seen this slip.  Too, to many in the random community, there is nothing more deadening than church.  This latter view must change.

We are ultra-blessed by those men and women and children who ooze forth kingdom life onto our paths. We read.  We hear.  We see. We learn.  Simultaneously, there is a growing hunger for a renewed spirituality for parts of our present system are weakening; even dying.

The appetite grows for actual engagement with the Living God.  Henri Nouwen makes a simple and yet profound observation.  There is today a great hunger for a new spirituality that is a new experience of God in our own lives....Prayer is not a preparation for work or an indispensable condition for ministry.  Prayer is life; prayer and ministry are the same and can never be divorced.  If they are, the minister becomes like an electrician or plumber and the priesthood nothing more than another way to soften the many pains of life.

There is a hunger for renewed spirituality.  We are to always have such an appetite.  I am one that simply needs to be reminded of this for others as well as myself.  We are engaged in kingdom activity.  Sometimes that exertion can eat the prayer time and the careful time spent with Father.  At this juncture our spirituality begins to limp.

Many parents want their kids in church.  But do these parents want them engaged in prayer?  I merely mean to nudge us toward an increasing relationship with Jesus in Spirit form.  There is nothing on earth more exciting than inhabiting the works out of heaven.

Whether our kids or ourselves, dissatisfaction will increase if spirituality is not perpetually renewed.  There is a hunger for it.  Everyone has this appetite.  We will do well to acknowledge the hunger pangs of our own souls...and feed from the Lamb of God.

Prayer is the renewing power of God among us.  It is here that He and we meet to ponder that which stands before us.