Sunday, February 8, 2015

May His Face Shine Upon You


The past year has been a whirlwind of glorious events. A tad bit complicated to put into human words, but the end result always makes enormous sense. What a beautiful picture life is - as the greatest artist known to man -- the one who holds creation in His hands, is the one painting ours.

Like an artist knows the picture he has in mind before the first stroke of the brush, only God knows what the future holds in the picture He is painting of our life. 

I recently gave a devotional to a group I was leading and I felt I had so much more to say to them but only a small amount of time to convey the point that God was trying to make as I shared with them James 1:2 (“Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials….”) so I just had to put it all into writing.

It’s commonly said that you are either heading into a storm, you’re in the middle of a storm, or you’re coming out of a storm. That’s life and it’s true for everyone who’s ever lived it. Whether we can detect any of those three segments or not, right now it is certain that we are all living in one of these events! I think I can speak for most people if I were to say that “coming out of the storm” would be the number one choice of where we would all like to be, but you can’t deny the beauty of a storm and all of its Glory!

My close friend and I had been going through separate storms together. These storms, although extremely different in nature, had one standard ground that kept us from drifting apart in the strong winds – one common denominator that reminded us of why we were there.  The solid Rock that never moved, was never shaken, and girded us with strength as the enemy tried to destroy – was none other than our Lord and Savior. 

I find it amazing how God places people, things, and situations perfectly into our lives. We can’t clearly see or understand the foreshadowing of it but always smile when we realize the end result. I love how God does that. He has a way of leaving us with a smile on our face after His mission is accomplished and that is the true joy of a believer.

Last Sunday, my husband spoke on seeking God’s face, not just His hand in our lives.
We are always asking for God’s hand in every situation, for his mercy, for his blessing, but one thing we lack as a society especially in American culture is seeking God’s face.  Truly seeking Him on our knees in prayer is really something that can’t be found in the calming sweetness of life. Seeking Him is not something we naturally do as human beings.  We are fleshly, and we personally have free will, but God has the final say and controls all of our surroundings.  It is He who gives the enemy permission to attack us and it is He who gives us the strength and power to pull through anything and it can only be done in His name. It all belongs to Him! He is the Artist, He is the great Creator – the One who tells the seas to part, waters to fall, winds and storms to arise! The mountains in our life tremble when his presence is near.

As my friend and I journeyed through our separate storms together – we cried tears, shared laughter, prayed many prayers, and dissected scripture – all of which were so pertinent in getting us through. We likened our learning experience to a diamond with many facets, rich with so much beauty to bestow.  Isn’t that just how God is? We told each other time and time again that nothing in life could match up with this great intimacy with God. He was teaching us so much and we were seeing Him in every single thing that we experienced. He was holding our hands as we were seeking His face. In the midst of this storm the most precious times of the day were found filling up on the Word of God and giving the Holy Spirit full reign in our lives. We would joke that we had an addiction. Yes, an addiction to God and our time spent with Him. I remember my 6 year old making the comment, “Mom, all you talk about all the time is God!” She seemed frustrated but I smiled knowing she really didn’t know Him yet, but her time would come. One thing was for sure, she knew He was a friend of mine and very important to me.

Here in the present I long for that again. I still seek Him, I still digest His word, but the storm has past, and the calming has now come. I remember feeling that my storm was almost over and I expressed to my friend how it kind of made me sad that the journey was coming to an end for me, she agreed and empathized with this deviating feeling. It wasn’t the ugly storm I was going to miss, obviously. It was knowing that the precise closeness to God and daily dwelling in His presence may not quite be the same in the days to come. This made me sad and lonesome for heaven.

I love how God held my hand through the storm. I love how He continued to reveal Himself to me.  But most of all I love how He did it all to get me to the next step I needed to take.  Just as a parent eventually lets go of the back of their child’s bike so he can take off on two wheels all by himself – our Heavenly Father gives us the training wheels we need until its time to let go and send us on.  He doesn’t go anywhere – His presence is still hovering over us – the only difference is that now, He has given His child the ability to spread His wings just a little further than before. God is allowing us to see the world in an entirely different way, with different set of eyes, with much more wisdom and understanding.

We experience a unique closeness to our Creator that can only be experienced in the midst of a storm.  He revealed Himself to me in a way that was so powerful that the very memory of it is embedded into my mind, soul, and spirit – never to be forgotten. This left me with more faith, more power and more strength to make it through the next storm whatever it may be. So consider it all joy my friend… and when those storms in life come….May His Face Shine Upon You!