“Everything I rejected about God was not God.”

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2015-10-06) from his book, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities (Kindle Location 310). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. . (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

This is a quote by Eric Metaxas who was the keynote speaker for the 2012 National Day of Prayer Breakfast that Mark attended. And it had a great impact on Mark.

Mark said, “It was like tectonic plates shifted with that one seismic statement, and I still feel the aftershocks. Most people who reject God are really rejecting religion, without knowing it. They aren’t really rejecting God for who He is. They are actually rejecting God for who He isn’t.”

Mark goes on, “Eric pushed the envelope even further: ‘Everything I rejected about God was not God. It was religion. . . . It was people who go to church and do not show the love of [Jesus], people who don’t practice what they preach, people who are indifferent to the poor and suffering. . . . I had rejected that, but guess what? Jesus had also rejected that. . . . Jesus was and is the enemy of dead religion.’”

Mark then said, “The most insidious lie we can believe about God is that He is somehow against us. It’s the very same lie that planted seeds of doubt in Eve’s spirit in the Garden of Eden. We’ve doubted God’s goodness ever since, and it’s the root cause of a thousand other problems. If the enemy can get us to buy into that original lie, we posture ourselves against God because we think God is against us. Then we reject God for all the wrong reasons. No. No. A thousand times no! God is for you. God is for you in every way imaginable. God is for you for all eternity.” A little later he said, “If you don’t love God, it’s because you don’t know God.”

That is so true. Please seek to really know God.

Will you do that?

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