2 Samuel 16:14 And the king, and all the people that were with him, came weary, and refreshed themselves there.

“Are we here yet?”

Who says that? You have a picture in your mind, admit it. If you haven’t said it yourselves, you have heard your kids, seen a commercial, or seen it in a movie. It is classic, something that we can all relate to on a human level. How about a spiritual level? What does it look like on a spiritual level?

Growing in Christ is not all that much different than the kids in the back seat asking are we there yet. Number one, they are not driving, number two, they do not know what the final destination looks like. There is within both an eagerness to get started to do something other than keep looking down that endless road which seems to never end.

It doesn’t end, at least not yet. 2 Samuel 16:14 is a perfect scripture to represent these feelings. All the people who were with Him wearied of the journey. I’ve been on this journey for decades and I might have gotten to the front seat, praise God, but I am still not driving. I am still a passenger who is longing to see a rest stop.

Spiritually speaking the kids in the back want to get started. They believe they have come far enough to get out and do something. They desire to help others while they themselves are still being helped. I have news for them, I am 70 and I am still being helped. That doesn’t stop just because you can help others.

This lesson is as much for me as it is for my young readers. Do not neglect your own growth in Christ just because you are raising up children of your own.

Isaiah 29:13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,”

How do you know the Lord? Is your knowledge of our Lord only by what a preacher or teacher has taught you? Isaiah warned us, and the warning is still valid today. If your only knowledge of the Lord are by what men say, you do not know the Lord as you should.

Relationships stem from the heart, not the head. If you have opened up your heart and let the Lord in, why do you look for Him anyplace other than within your own heart? Yes you need a mind to reason with, but reasoning isn’t relationship.

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Desire the Lord in your heart. He is not in the hope of your mind.

Psalm 21:2 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.

If your heart’s desire is the Lord, you will get your heart’s desire.

It may be that the largest problem with mainstream religions today is that they love the commandments of men with their minds more than they love the Lord with the desires of their hearts. God does not want your good intentions, He wants your heart.

Institutional devotion is not the same as worshipping God.

John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

Spirit and Truth reside in the hearts of those who love God.