Plumbing the Depths

“What the Church needs are more ‘deep’ Christians” (Richard Foster, “Celebration of Discipline”).  The Apostle Paul wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!!” (Rom.11:33)

How does one become a ‘deeper’ Christian? It takes ‘Time’ and ‘Experience’. To know the depth of something, one must have ‘plumbed’ the depth, that is attempted some sort of measure. To have some knowledge of the depth of God, one must explore the consequences and implications of Christian faith on one’s life and society, and thus to start to see the vast possibilities. Such exploration, takes time in God’s word, time with Him in prayer, and time in constructive, exploratory fellowship together.

But most of all, depth of understanding and knowledge of the wisdom, grace and ways of God, come from experience. We learn only a small amount from what we hear, a larger amount from what we read and see, but our most significant learning experiences come from doing.

Can we truly say we live:-

  • without fear, unless we have walked through the valley of the shadow of death with God’s comfort,
  • in patience, unless we have struggled with many long dark nights of “unanswered” prayer,
  • with compassion, unless we have really allowed ourselves to be touched by the needy,
  • in hope, unless we have seen the vision of what could be in Christ,
  • by faith, unless we have ever stepped into the unknown with no support but trust in God’s provision,
  • in love, unless we have been prepared to love the most ungrateful, and to love again in God’s strength.


“This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” (Ph.1:9)

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