Seeking Truth in Today's Troubled World

When Christ calls, He does not add a fresh coat of paint to a tired room. He breaks a window to heaven and lets a new world in. Scripture names this miracle new birth. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). A heart once heavy with self now hums with hope. What was formerly duty becomes delight because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). 

In those first days, common things glow with uncommon meaning. Bread and water recall the living Bread and the living Water. The sky spreads like a promise. The conscience, long dulled, awakens. Ezekiel foresaw it: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone…and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26–27). The soul that once said, “Where is God?” now says, “Surely the Lord is in this place” (Genesis 28:16). 

The earliest grace is often the warmest felt. The Holy Spirit draws so near that His nearness seems almost touchable. The Psalmist’s confession becomes your own: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Prayer moves from ceremony to conversation. Tears flow, not from despair, but from a new tenderness. “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father’” (Galatians 4:6). That cry is not a recital. It is the Spirit’s own voice in the believer, teaching the tongue to say “Father” with confidence. 

This sense of holy companionship is not fantasy. Jesus promised it. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17). And again, “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). On the road to Emmaus, the disciples felt this very warmth. After the risen Lord opened the Scriptures and broke the bread, they asked one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). 

During this honeymoon, the Scriptures do not lie flat. They rise. Verses once obscure begin to glow with the inner light of the Author. “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:130). The commandments that once condemned now console, because they are heard from the mouth of a Savior who fulfilled them for us and writes them on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33). 

The Spirit is the great Tutor of this season. He takes the things of Christ and makes them known (John 16:14). He leads into truth, convicts of sin, and consoles with the gospel (John 16:8, 13). The newly born soul often finds that every page points to Jesus, and it does. “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). The Bible becomes a lamp to the feet and a light to the path (Psalm 119:105). The soul drinks like a newborn, “longing for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” because you “have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2–3). 

Another sign of early grace is an enlarged sight. “The heavens declare the glory of God” ceases to be a verse on a wall and becomes a report from the heart’s own eyes (Psalm 19:1). Providence turns visible. Coincidences thin out into providences. Faces become parables. The new believer begins to see, not only the stain of sin, but also the image of God in every person he meets. He discovers that love is the great interpreter of others, because “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). To walk through a city with this awakened love is to move through a field white for harvest (John 4:35). The Spirit trains this sight so that the Christian can say with the Psalmist, “I have set the Lord always before me” (Psalm 16:8). 

But God is a wise Father. He lays a fire in the soul to warm it into life, then He teaches the soul to tend the fire. In time the early flood of feeling ebbs. This is not abandonment. It is education. As with Israel in the wilderness, God feeds with manna so that His people learn to trust His word, then He leads them into a land where they must sow and reap, all the while remembering that their strength still comes from Him (Deuteronomy 8:2–3, 17–18). The cloud moves. The Father who carried you asks you to walk. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). 

This is no punishment. It is how love matures. Feelings are like flowers of spring. Steadfastness is the fruit of summer and autumn. Trials do the quiet work that ecstasy cannot do. “You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith…may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7). James says that the testing of faith produces steadfastness, and steadfastness, maturity (James 1:2–4). Even when the soul “walks in darkness and has no light,” Scripture teaches it to trust in the name of the Lord and rely on its God (Isaiah 50:10). 

In the early days, God’s pursuit is overwhelming. Later, He invites ours. He withdraws the warmth, not His word. He conceals the hand, not His heart. He calls the soul into the romance of seeking. “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). This mutuality is part of the covenant life. Christ says, “Abide in Me, and I in you…apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5). Abiding is not drifting. It is a chosen nearness, pursued by prayer, maintained by obedience, nourished by the Word, and shared in the fellowship of the saints. 

To grow is to participate. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you” (Philippians 2:12–13). The Spirit’s energy does not cancel effort. It consecrates it. Love answers Love. The Bridegroom’s voice awakens the bride. She rises to seek Him through the streets and finds that the seeking deepens the finding (Song of Songs 3:1–4). 

God has appointed ordinary paths for extraordinary communion. 

The Word. The Scriptures remain the fountain. In dry seasons, read more slowly, not less. Store up the Word as Christ did, so that in the lean hour your heart can say, “It is written” (Matthew 4:1–11). Mature believers have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice in the Word (Hebrews 5:14). 

Prayer. Early prayer often feels like singing. Later prayer sometimes feels like sowing in tears. Sow anyway. The Lord keeps count of your toss and your tear (Psalm 126:5–6; Psalm 56:8). Jesus taught that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). 

Fellowship. The honeymoon can feel solitary, but the journey cannot be. The earliest Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). We are commanded not to neglect meeting together, but to encourage one another, “and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24–25). 

Obedience. Obedience keeps the arteries of joy open. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love” (John 15:10). Disobedience does not dissolve sonship, but it does dim fellowship. “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Keep short accounts with God. Confess quickly. Rise promptly. Walk humbly. 

The Table and Baptism. God gives visible words for forgetful hearts. In baptism we are signed with Christ’s death and resurrection (Romans 6:3–4). At the Table we receive, again and again, what our hunger needs: Christ for us and Christ with us (1 Corinthians 10:16–17; 11:23–26). 

There will be days when prayer is dry as winter wood and the Bible feels like a locked door. These are not wasted days. They are invitations to love God for God’s sake. Job could not find God in front or behind, yet he held to Him, and the trial refined him like gold (Job 23:8–10). David cried, “How long, O Lord?” yet kept singing his way into trust (Psalm 13). The sons of Korah thirsted for God and argued with their downcast souls until they could hope again in God their salvation (Psalm 42–43). 

The church at Ephesus was commended for orthodoxy yet warned for cooling love. “You have abandoned the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). The remedy was not to recreate early feelings, but to repent, remember, and return to the works of love. The “first love” can be deepened into a faithful love that persists through all weather. 

A tree rooted in grace must bear fruit for others. The Spirit who makes Christ dear also makes neighbors dear. In marriage, the Spirit teaches a husband to love as Christ loved the church and a wife to adorn the gospel with respect and purity of heart (Ephesians 5:22–33; 1 Peter 3:1–4). In conflict, He enables forgiveness “as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). In the workplace, He turns labor into worship, “working heartily, as for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). 

The honeymoon begins with being loved. It matures when love becomes the believer’s daily craft. The Spirit bears His fruit in character that serves and perseveres: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). These are not ornaments for a season. They are the harvest of a lifetime. 

Over time, the fireworks of first grace give way to the hearth-fire of abiding grace. The warmth is steadier, the light more useful. Confidence in Christ becomes less fragile because it is rooted in His promise rather than in fluctuating feelings. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:27–28). The soul learns to say with Peter, not out of frenzy but out of tested trust, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). 

Here lies a holy secret. In teaching us to pursue Him, God is not withdrawing Himself. He is drawing us deeper. In inviting us to walk by faith, He is making room for greater vision. In asking us to love when feelings ebb, He is enlarging our capacity to receive everlasting joy. 

We should not be surprised that growth involves conflict. The honeymoon can feel like a truce, but Christian life is warfare under a Prince of Peace. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood…but against the spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). The armor of God is not decorative. Truth fastens, righteousness shields, the gospel steadies, faith extinguishes darts, salvation crowns, the Word cuts, and prayer sustains “at all times” (Ephesians 6:13–18). The early tenderness equips the heart with confidence in the Commander. The later battles prove His faithfulness on the field. 

Some speak as though the fading of early feelings is the end of something precious. Scripture speaks as though it is the beginning of something weightier. Temporary sweetness is wonderful. Durable holiness is more wonderful. The psalmist did not only know green pastures and still water. He learned not to fear in the valley of the shadow because the Lord was with him there too, rod and staff at hand, table set even before enemies, head anointed, cup overflowing, goodness and mercy chasing him all his days, and a final home in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23). 

This is the shape of Christian hope. The God who began the good work will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). He does not romance the soul into immaturity. He loves it into likeness. From first love to faithful love, from felt nearness to trusted presence, from milk to solid food, from spring blossoms to autumn fruit, the story moves toward glory. 

A Prayer for Those in the Honeymoon and Those Beyond 

Lord Jesus, for those newly awakened, let the sweetness of Your nearness seal their hearts. Let Your Word run and be glorified. Teach them to love holiness because they love You. For those who now walk by faith in the quieter fields, give them the nobility of steadfast love. Make them oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that You may be glorified. Keep all of us close. Keep us pursuing. Keep us abiding. Keep us until the day when faith becomes sight and first love becomes forever love. Amen. 

A Few Scriptures to Carry On 

• New birth and new creation: John 3:3–8; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 36:26–27 

• The Spirit’s nearness: John 14:16–18, 26; Romans 5:5; Galatians 4:6 

• Scripture made alive: Psalm 119:18, 105, 130; Luke 24:27, 32 

• Seeing God everywhere: Psalm 19:1–4; Psalm 16:8; Acts 17:27–28 

• The fading of first feelings and the test of faith: Deuteronomy 8:2–3; Isaiah 50:10; 1 Peter 1:6–7; James 1:2–4 

• Pursuit and abiding: Jeremiah 29:13; James 4:8; John 15:1–11; Philippians 2:12–13 

• Means of grace and community: Acts 2:42; Hebrews 10:24–25; Luke 18:1 

• Guarding fellowship with God: John 15:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; Psalm 32; 1 John 1:7–9 

• Perseverance in dryness: Psalm 13; Psalms 42–43; Job 23:8–10; Revelation 2:4–5 

• Love flowing outward: Ephesians 5:22–33; Colossians 3:12–24; Galatians 5:22–23 

• Warfare and courage: Ephesians 6:10–18; 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 

• The Shepherd’s keeping: Psalm 23; John 10:27–30; John 6:68; Philippians 1:6 

In Christ’s Service,

~Jonathan F. Hillmer