God, in His inner essence, is a mystery beyond our comprehension; we will never know Him as He knows Himself. The great pilgrims along the way have discovered that progress from superficial to substantive apprehension of God is not so much a movement from darkness to light as it is a plummeting into the ever-increasing profundity of the cloud of unknowing.
Kallistos Ware in The Orthodox Way distinguishes the essence of God and the energies of God. In His essence, God is radically transcendent, but in His energies, He is immanent and omnipresent. As Ware notes, “The Godhead is simple and indivisible, and has no parts. The essence signifies the whole God as he is in himself; the energies signify the whole God as he is in action. God in his entirety is completely present in each of his divine energies.” As we reflect on God’s revelatory actions, we come to know Him more clearly, and this enables us to love Him more dearly, and to follow Him more nearly.
Loving God through His World
“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalm 19:1). “O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your possessions” (Psalm 104:24). Read Psalm 19:1-6 and Psalms 104 and 148 carefully and prayerfully and you will be struck by the manifold ways in which God designed the heavens and earth to display His glory, wisdom, and greatness.
Meditation on the created order is too often neglected as a meaningful component of devotional spirituality. This is unfortunate, because creation abounds with resplendent wonders on every order of magnitude from the microcosm to the macrocosm that point beyond themselves to the beauty and unimaginable brilliance of the Creator of the cosmos. Consider these marvels of order and design: particles and atoms, light and colors, microbes and diatoms, snowflakes, insects, seeds, flowers, leaves, shells, rocks and minerals, fruits, vegetables, plants, small and large birds, small and large fish, whales, small and large animals, trees, mountains, clouds, weather, the seasons, our earth, the planets, stars, nebulae, our galaxy, clusters and superclusters of galaxies.
There is no limit to the images and insights that can be gleaned from nature if we take the time and have the eyes to see. We would do well to cultivate a childlike sense of amazement and awe at the things we tend to overlook every day. Our artificial environments and busy schedules make us forget that we are surrounded by mystery and majesty. I encourage you to make the effort to enjoy more frequent and deliberate contact with God’s creation and to develop a deeper appreciation for the complexity, beauty, and resplendence of the heavens and earth. As you do this, you will sense that the God who designed all this and spoke it into being is utterly competent, trustworthy, and lovable.
Loving God through His Word
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law” (Psalm 119:18). The Word of God restores the soul, imparts wisdom, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, reveals God’s righteousness, and endures forever (Psalm 19:7-9). Scripture was revealed not merely to inform us, but to transform us.
There is an important place for informational reading of Scripture and for exegetical and topical methods of Bible study. But those who approach Scripture in this way often overlook the formational approach that centers on speaking to the heart more than informing the mind. The Bible is not merely an object, but a divinely inspired oracle that is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and has the power to transform those who receive it in humility and obedience (James 1:21-22). Devotional spirituality stresses the formative power of revealed truth and encourages us to love God through His Word.
Loving God through His Works
Say to God, “How awesome are Your works!”
Come and see the works of God,
Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men.
I shall remember the deeds of the Lord;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all Your work
And muse on Your deeds.
You are the God who works wonders;
You have made known Your strength among the peoples.
You have by Your power redeemed Your people (Psalm 66:3, 5; 77:11-12, 14-15).
The psalmists frequently reviewed and reflected upon God’s historical acts of redemption, protection, and provision. Both testaments abound with accounts of how God has worked in specific and dramatic ways in the lives of people and in the destiny of nations. He has demonstrated His just and loving purposes in the arena of human history, and prayerful consideration of His mighty works of creation, redemption, and consummation is another way of enhancing our worship and devotion for the triune Godhead.
Loving God through His Ways
“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel” (Psalm 103:7). Moses not only knew the Lord through His works, but he also knew and loved the Lord through His ways. God’s ways concern His personal involvement in our lives and our experiences of His peace, power, provision, protection, compassion, and care. It is good to build a personal “history” of God’s providential care by reviewing and remembering the things He has done at various points along your spiritual journey. Remember His surprising answers to prayer, the way He drew you to Himself, the way He carried you through turbulent waters, the way He provided for your needs when circumstances looked hopeless, the way He encouraged and comforted you in your distress, the way He exhorted you through others and disciplined you for your good, and the way He seeks to strip you of your hope in the things of this world so that you will learn to hope only in Him. “I will tell of what He has done for my soul” (Psalm 66:16). Grateful reflection on what God has done for your soul is a vital component of devotional spirituality.
God’s ways also relate to the multifaceted attributes of His person, powers, and perfections. Since our capacity to love God is related to our image of God, we do well to pray for the grace of growing apprehension of the glories of His attributes: His unlimited power, presence, and knowledge; His holiness, justice, goodness, truthfulness, and righteousness; His goodness, grace, compassion, mercy, and love; His beauty, glory, greatness, transcendent majesty, and dominion; and His self-existence, eternity, infinity, and immutability. As Dallas Willard puts it in The Divine Conspiracy, God is “an interlocking community of magnificent persons, completely self-sufficing and with no meaningful limits on goodness and power.” He is the absolute answer to the perennial quest for the true, the good, and the beautiful.
Taken from Ken Boa’s Handbook to Spiritual Growth
