11/21/06
Trickle-Down Theology
Betsy Childs
If you asked most of the population whether or not theology was important to them, the vast majority would say no. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the answer of the majority of self-proclaimed Christians might not be all that different. Theology is perceived as an academic discipline with little relevance to the pressing needs of our lives. But this perception disregards the fact that
every human being has a theology, whether or not they realize it, and that our theology affects everything we do.
Theology is, quite simply, the study of God and the resulting beliefs. Though many may have never intentionally set out to study God, they have nevertheless come to some conclusions about Him. You don't need to study gravity to make deductions about it; all you need to do is fall out of your bed. And just as the truths we intuit about the laws of gravity affect how we walk, run, fly, or set the table for dinner, the beliefs we have about God (whether they be true or not) have a trickle-down effect that influences every decision we make.
A. W. Tozer writes, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.... For this reason, the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what at a given time he may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like."(1)
Pause and think about that statement for a moment. All those things that seem important--your reputation, the way you spend your time, your political views--pale in comparison to the importance of what you believe about God in your heart of hearts. Not only that, but how you handle all of those other secondary things depend upon what you think about God. Is He good, or is He out to trick us? Is He merciful or capricious? Are his ways arbitrary and purposeless, or is He able bring blessing out of even the deepest pain?
You may consider yourself a student of theology. You may have a well-developed, intellectual framework for understanding your creator. But this isn't the only kind of studying you have done. Every person's understanding of God has also been shaped (and misshaped) by their experiences and relationships. Some people have a misshapen idea of God because Christians have hurt them; some draw their conception of God from their relationship with their own father. Regardless of what your experience has been, each of us has a heart theology that we live by, which doesn't always line up with the intellectual view of God to which we subscribe.
Consider spending some time examining your own "heart theology." What comes into your mind when you think about God? Where did that come from? How is it trickling down into your thoughts and actions?
We each have a need to ask these questions on a regular basis. We also have a need to truly commune with God, so that our thoughts of Him will be shaped by real interactions with Him. You may not feel like you have time to just be in the presence of God, conversing with Him in prayer and meditating on his word, but you may find yourself desperate to make time when you realize that your conception of God influences whether you yell at your kids or speak tenderly to them, whether you anxiously lie awake at night or sleep peacefully, whether you destroy most of your relationships or build lasting friendships. No one likes to be misunderstood. We were made by a God who wants to be known, and He wants to be known by you.
Betsy Childs is associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) A. W. Tozer,
The Knowledge of the Holy, (New York: HarperCollins, 1961), 1.
Requested By Bro Greg
