Does everyone have a "God-shaped hole"?

While on our side prayer is a clear expression of dependence it also speaks of the unique place we fill in the scale of being. In the complex character of His being man has links both with spirit creation above and the animal class beneath. Bound by his body to the earth of which it forms part he has links with the creature beneath but taking a place in the spirit creation he not only has links with these but is fitted to hold converse with God the great Author of life to whom he owes his existence Then when we recall that the before time purposes of God specially concern the race of mankind though almighty power would repel, holy love attracts and we are encouraged to draw near and lay bare in His presence the inmost secrets of our heart. Both the natural and spiritual sides of our being should be kept in view when speaking of prayer. There are the bodily needs which must be met or death will terminate the earthly course while on the spiritual side the heart must have an object. All the great structure of life around us, where field and forest, city, town, and village appear, is traceable to the fact that man needs food for his body. But as a moral being cannot exist without an object, much of the same structure witnesses to the requirements of his soul. From the earliest ages man has sought to gratify his thirst for knowledge by investigating the various departments of creation to which he has access. Success here may-in his present state-exalt man but never satisfy him. Consequently he is compelled to look beyond what is material to Him who is over all, and in Whom he lives, moves, and has his being.

Now, that the Son quickened souls from Adam onwards, no Christian, I suppose, would deny. That in God we live, move, and have our being, so that we are in a certain sense His offspring, we know is scriptural truth. But this is vastly more. It is in heathenism, as such, communion with divine life in Christ. The whole of this argument (and here the theologians run completely into the same channel both here and in Europe, with a large class of Germans whose system is infidel) confounds the wants and cravings of a being created for God, when they have Him not, with the answer that grace gives to those cravings in Christ: a very grave blunder.

This world has its powerful attractions, and the cunning enemy of mankind has designed it for the ruin of his victim, but the attraction God has for man is Himself, revealed in love, and in the apprehension of this lies the endless blessing of His poor fallen creature. And that men might be attracted to Him He left not Himself at any time without witness, even in the darkest places of the earth: doing good, and giving rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14); desiring that they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us (Acts 17). Man in his wanderings had got a long way from God, but God in His marvellous grace pursued him closely, even into the darkest corners of the earth, and in unwearying patience kept continually before his eyes the evidences of His goodness and tender consideration for His creature, that he might be induced to return to Him.

The imagination, under the influence of Satan, created gods everywhere, but at the bottom the idea of God was there. And yet this God, the true, was unknown - deplorable state of mankind, deprived of God, of whom they stood in such deep need! thus enemies to His true knowledge, because the conscience, which makes responsibility felt, could not endure His presence, because the heart desired things which the conscience in the presence of God condemned. They made gods who would help men to gratify their passions. Man cannot suffice to himself; he has lost God, and fears Him; his heart stoops to that which is more degraded than himself. He seeks, but in vain, to satisfy the need of his heart by means of objects which degrade him, and make him forget God, of whom the thought is anguish to his heart.

In the history, too, of every soul, there comes a yearning for something more than the merest satisfaction of pressing hunger. Every gift from the hand of such a Giver makes us long, not merely for more gifts, but for the rest which can only be found in Himself. It is a blessed fact that the Person of Christ is the necessary goal toward which the Spirit of God ever leads. Nothing short of the Lord Himself will do: "Our souls were made for Thyself, and can never rest save in Thee."

It is natural to man to approach God with the fruit of his own labour in his hands. Such a feeling is deep in human nature; and whatever traditional idolatry may have come in, or even fetishism, there will be found, I believe, in all men, naturally, the desire to present some fruit of their own labour to God.

Now, do not let my reader charge me with an over-strong condemnation of man. What is true of one is true of all; and, although all may not have taken the ground of avowed atheism, or even of pronounced infidelity, yet there is not one of us who, by nature, either loves God or seeks after Him.

We may however discern this that man's will, if he is left to himself never turns toward God. The fall has given it a permanent twist away from Him. This is definitely stated in Romans 3:10-12. It is stated first of all that "there is NONE righteous;" that is, none "right with God." Yes, we might say, that is true, but surely some people are more sincere and understanding than others, and so these get converted. Not so, for there is "NONE that understands." This makes man's plight much worse — nobody right, and nobody understands their desperate position. But again we might say, Yes, but surely some will have an innate sense — a kind of intuition — that they need God, and so begin to seek after Him. But once more, not so, for, "there is NONE that seeks after God."

"Oh, well," says the contentious one, "if man's understanding is astray, there are his instincts and feelings. These are all right, and if followed will surely lead him after God." But count No. 3 confronts us — there is no one who seeks after God. Is that really so? It is indeed. Then what does man seek after? We all know, do we not? He seeks after self-pleasing, self-advancement, self-glory. Consequently he seeks money, pleasure, sin. What he seeks when the power of God has touched his heart is another matter. The point here is what he seeks according to his fallen nature, and apart from the grace of God.

Thirdly, "There is none that seeks after God". The religion of the natural man has the appearance of seeking after God. Nevertheless a religion of works, barren moralities, and ritual observances, so far from seeking God, is, in reality an effort to quiet conscience, and keep God at a distance. Fallen man may be intensely religious, but does not really seek after God.