But all of that can be said of God's view of us. There is nothing passive, aloof or detached about God. All of this is response. We are flowers opening up to be pelted by ray after ray. The sun does all the fury, the flower drinks and sways along to it's circuit.
Seems rather easy: open and float, but try as I might, I just can't. Advice, stories would be appreciated
You know, I don't see any "open and float" advice in Scripture...
Instead, I see a relationship described in God's word between each of us and God within which our love and enjoyment of God
grows over time.
Christ said,
"For where you treasure is, there will your heart be also." (
Matthew 6:21) In other words, the investment of my time, energy and money (my "treasure") in a particular thing determines how much of my heart that thing will possess. The more I invest in a thing, the more of my heart that thing will obtain. Certainly, this is true in any human relationship. People can't be drawn together if they never interact, if they never speak with one another, if they don't take the time to be with and know the other person. So, too, with God. If one won't invest in one's relationship with Him, one shouldn't be surprised when He seems distant and uninteresting.
We are, of course, drawn to investment in relationship with others by virtue of the pleasure we take in their company (excepting the necessity of work relationships, or other necessary relationships one has with one's doctor, or dentist, etc.). There are, though, certain...protocols we follow when beginning a friendship with someone. I don't, for example, simply bust in on a neighbor, inviting myself into their home, intruding upon them unannounced, helping myself to their stuff just as I like. This behaviour would be sure to ruin any chance of friendship, I think.
So, too, with God. He has conditions under which we approach Him and come to enjoy Him in friendship. Most obviously, God is, well,
God. We can only interact with Him in light of this fact. And so, we have to approach Him as an inferior, as one entirely dependent upon Him for everything, as His creature and servant, humble and submitted to Him. This is the
only dynamic under which we can come to enjoy God fully.
Romans 6:13
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Romans 6:22
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Romans 8:14
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Romans 12:1
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
James 4:6-10
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
1 Peter 5:5-6
5 ...Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
It is not the common practice of modern Christians to live in daily, even moment-by-moment, submission to God. As a consequence, these same Christians experience a very shallow, frustrating interaction with God, constantly struggling with other competing interests in their attempts to draw close to Him. God would alter their desires, transform their heart so that they desire Him above all else, but He will not compel such a transformation. They must yield themselves to Him before His transformation of them occurs. Submission, then, is absolutely essential to Christian living, to enjoying God.
God is also, of course, absolutely holy. (
1 John 1:5) This fact orders our approach to Him. We can't expect delightful, joyful interaction with God when our lives are full of unconfessed sin we are not willing to forsake. (See:
Psalms 66:18; Isaiah 59:2; 1 Peter 3:12) God's holy nature confines our interactions with Him, making it impossible for us to enjoy Him so long as we dabble willfully in the sin He despises.
But Christians today have this idea that sin is no big deal. They think "grace covers it all" so that they can be mired in the filth of the pigpen of sin and approach God without issue. Well, their sin cannot dissolve their relationship to God as His child, but just as happened with the Prodigal Son, the Christian's sinful waywardness totally halts their intimate communion with their Heavenly Father. It is not possible, then, to accommodate sin in one's life and deeply enjoy our holy, holy, holy God Almighty.
Finally, our interactions with God are necessarily constrained by His truth (
John 4:24; John 14:17; John 17:17-19; Romans 1:18; 2 Corinthians 4:2, etc.). If one approaches God with a false view of who He is, and how one may interact with Him, the result will be frustration, confusion and fleshly attempts to manufacture sensual "experiences" of God. Too often, Christians don't really know who God is, holding contorted, pop-culture ideas about His love, His holiness, His justice and His essential nature. As a result, they try to relate with God according to these contorted ideas and find, of course, He is not there. The false God they try to know does not exist.
When, however, a person comes to God as He is, attending to the "protocols" of approaching God Almighty, they find Him the most incredible, delightful, peace-giving Person imaginable. They discover God is truly good, that He transforms them just as He promised, filling their lives with Himself and all of the awesome richness and joy that entails.
Psalm 16:11
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.