“Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything about the Almighty?” Job 11:7 NLT
The Discovery of God
Walk His Way Revisited
I recently found a sticky note in a devotional, dated 1/14/07:
“I want you to learn to love her.
I don’t want to.
I didn’t ask you if you wanted to,
it’s what I’ve called you to do”
At the bottom of the note is a single word: Rebellion.
This was a very short conversation between God and I. I have no idea who it is about, nor if I was faithful to carry it out.
A few days later I was reading my Bible, and came across a verse with the date 01/15/10 next to it. This is Job’s reply after God has asked him almost 70 questions, none of which Job can answer:
“I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2 NIV).
Thus started my journey. “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5 NIV).
And so Job discovers God. In a *Chuck Smith commentary, he says: “It’s always a glorious day in our lives when God is moved from our heads to our hearts. (Moving) from just a knowledge to an experience. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God’ (Matthew 5:8). And how glorious when our eyes behold, when the spiritual eyes are opened and I really begin to have a real experience with God in my life. And the Scriptures are suddenly opened up. A whole new dimension of spiritual life is open to me as I am born again by the Spirit and come into the spiritual dimension. No longer just hearing about God, but now actually seeing, comprehending God. And in the discovery of God there comes the resultant discovery of self: ‘Wherefore I abhor myself, I repent in dust and ashes’ (Job 42:6 KJV).”
And there I found myself back at the sticky note:
“And Simon Peter, having seen, fell down at the knees of Jesus, saying‘Depart from me, because I am a sinful man, O Lord;'” (Luke 5:8 YLT).
The beautiful thing: I was giving the devotional book back to a friend I had not seen for many years. She had given it to me in 2003. I remember her telling me at the time that she really liked it, but was giving it to me because the Lord had told her to. I learned during our “catch up talk” that she had lost her husband three years ago, and I could see she still obviously felt the resultant loss and sorrow. The Lord brought to my mind the devotional. As I gave it to her, she smiled and said, “I was just thinking that I needed to get one.” I told her, “God knew that, so here it is.”
A small thing, yes, but within it the discovery of God—the comprehension that He wanted me to give it to her, just as He knew she was seeking it. There was no “I don’t want to” this time, no rebellion.
I pray I loved the woman on the sticky note.
Dear Lord, thank You that You bring to remembrance things from the past to remind us of who You are, of the relationship You long to have with us. By Your Spirit, I pray that we each have a discovery of You this very day. Amen.
Excellent reminder-thank you!