Seeing God

In the final chapter of the story of Job he says in verse 5, "I had heard of You (God) by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You..." This is a profound experience for any person to have.

 The Spiritual Formation Bible commenting on this verse in a side bar says, " The affirmation that Job makes shows how he has moved from thinking and talking about God to encountering God personally-- one of the greatest leaps in the spiritual life. Job has grown beyond discussing theology with his friends. He has grown beyond wanting God to answer him. Now hearing God's voice, he sees that the goal is not an exchange of ideas but a relationship. Being with God is more important than understanding God."

Do we truly understand that last sentence, "Being with God is more important than understanding God." Too often people want to question, argue, and debate God, theology and biblical issues without being with God and having a personal relationship with God. If people are trying to figure out God and have a complete understanding of God and God's work or providence before being with God, forget it, as it will not happen that way. Much better to rest in God and trust God as love and righteous.

Here is good news from Hebrews chapter seven and verses 23 through 28; Jesus never gives up for us. He completes each task that has been set before him. He continually is offering prayers for us and talking to God about us as our permanent priest in heaven. Surely this teaching is designed to encourage us and give us comfort and peace as we seek to faithfully live for God in our sin prone lives ( at least that is the way I experience my life).

Evelyn Underhill in The Spiritual Life writes; "A spiritual life is a life which is controlled by a gradually developing sense of the Eternal, of God and His transcendent reality; an increasing capacity for God, so our relation to God becomes the chief thing about us, exceeding and also conditioning our relationship with each other...For what it means for us is surely this: that we are meant, beyond the physical, to contribute to, indeed collaborate in; God's spiritual creation." 

I recently sent the following devotional from "Streams In The Desert" to a dear friend who is struggling with and praying for a child who is "lost in the wilderness." It was based on Genesis 18:14, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

     "This is God's loving challenge to you and to me each day.God wants us to think of the deepest, highest, and worthiest desires and longings of our hearts. He wants us to think of those things that perhaps were desires for ourselves or for someone dear to us, yet have gone unfulfilled for so long that we now see them as simply lost desires. And God urges us to think of even the one thing that we once saw as possible but have given up all hope of seeing fulfilled in this life.

     That very thing as long as it aligns with what we know to be His expressed will -- as a son was to Abraham and Sarah-- God intends to do for us. Yes, if we let Him, God will do that very thing, even if we know it is such an utter impossibility that we would simply laugh at the absurdity of anyone ever suggesting it could come to pass.

     "Is anything to hard for the Lord?" No, nothing is too difficult when we believe in Him enough to go forward, doing His will and letting Him do the impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God's plan if they had continued to disbelieve.

     The only thing "too hard for the Lord" is our deliberate and continual disbelief in His love and power, and our ultimate rejection of His plans for us. Nothing is impossible for Jehovah to do for those who trust Him."

It is said that Christians with the most spiritual depth are generally those who have been taken through the most intense and deeply anguishing fires of the soul. If you have been praying to know more of Christ, do not be surprised if He leads you through the desert or through a furnace of pain.

So it is that some Christian prayed the following: "Dear Lord, do not punish me by removing my cross from me. Instead, comfort me by leading me into submission to Your will and by causing me to love the cross. Give me only what will serve You best, and may it be used to reveal the greatest of all Your mercies; bringing glory to Your name through me, according to Your will. Amen.

Here are my seven selected 'words' from this week's Bible lessons:

distressed

shine

knowledge

path of life

assurance

beware

humility

Remember "a generous person will prosper and one who enriches others will likewise be enriched!"