When I think of how we get to “know” God, I think about how we get to know people. We spend time with them and we communicate in many ways. We also experience people. By spending time together we grow in relationship. We do not see and experience God in the same way we do people. It helps to reframe our perspective to contemplating spiritual experiences with God. Those experiences come best by surrendering to His goodness, especially when we do not initially understand that is what is happening.
The following is an excerpt from Streams In The Desert, by L. B. E. Cowman and Jim Reimann. From August 21. [I added some photos of mine.]
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“He brought me out into a spacious place, he rescued me because he delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:19)
What is this “spacious place?” What can it be but God himself – the infinite being through whom all other beings find their source and their end of life? God is indeed a “spacious place.” And it was through humiliation, degradation, and a sense of worthlessness that David was taken to it. Madame Guyon
“I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself.” Exodus 19:4
Hearing to launch on “full surrender’s” tide,
I asked the Lord where would its waters glide
my little boat, “To troubled seas I dread?”
“Unto Myself,” He said.
Weeping beside an open grave I stood,
in bitterness of soul I cried to God:
“Where leads this path of sorrow that I tread?”
“Unto Myself,” He said.
Striving for souls, I’d love to work too well;
Then disappointments came; I could not tell
The reason, till he said, “I am your all;
Unto Myself I call.”
Watching my heroes those – I love the best –
I saw them fail; they would not stand the test,
Even by this the Lord, through tears not few,
Unto Himself me drew.
Unto Himself! Earthly tongue can tell
The bliss I find, since in his heart I dwell;
The things that charmed me once seemed all as naught;
Unto himself I’m brought.
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What are you willing to let go of to draw near to God?
Abba, Help us to see You through your lenses, not our finite, selfish ways. Help us to begin to see you even, and especially, where we least expect. Thank You for your promise to be with us, even to the end of the age! Amen
