“I would suggest one of the greatest dangers is that of becoming dependent upon meetings. There is developing a kind of ‘meetings mania’ and there are Christian people who seem to be always at meetings. Now meetings are undoubtedly of great value…but let us beware lest we become so dependent upon meetings that one day when we find ourselves ill and laid upon our bed we do not know what to do with ourselves…We must beware of the danger of resting on props even in Christian service
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… Professor Whitehead uttered a great truth when he said in his definition that ‘Religion is what a man does with his own solitude.’ You and I, in the last analysis, are what we are when we are alone.
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Let me put it plainly— the danger with some of us is to spend far too much of our time even reading about him. The day may come, indeed will come, when we shall not be able to read. Then comes the test. Will you still be happy? Do you know Him so well that though you become deaf or blind this fount will still be open? Do you know Him so well that you can talk to Him and listen to Him and enjoy Him always? Will all be well because you have always been so dependent upon your relationship to Him that nothing else really matters!”
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Martyn Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Depression, p. 282-285
What a humbling and terrifying thought. Take away my meetings and my books and leave me alone, deaf and blind. Then what will my knowledge and love for God be?
Oh, I do not just want to know more about Him. I want to know Him!
