I See:
My Father, the Great and Mighty One, the Almighty, the I Am who is everything to me, my Maker, Molder and Lover of my soul. I see His greatness, His mighty hand and outstretched arms. He is the one who sees all, knows all and create ways in impossible locations like in the desert and seas. I see His glory in the rising sun, His majesty in rainbows and the brilliance of His countenance in the moon and stars. His faithfulness and unfailingly love drizzles down like constant rain.
I see Him who out of His fullness gave me grace after grace, spiritual blessings upon spiritual blessings, favor upon favor and gift upon gift. He is my redeemer, my advocate and comforter. The one who reveals to me who my Father is, and He who requires faith like a grain of mustard seed. He gives a lot on a little from me, though that little is my all.
Because I see Him, like Paul can say: " pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." 1
And like Habakkuk, say: "Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk on my high places." 2
And I stand and declare that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.
Quote: "To see the glory of God is to know his Goodness" 3
All I see is You: By Sinach Joseph
God's Love Story:
The Prodigal Daughter
By: Christina Martin
Four years ago, my world came crashing down on me. A “family crisis”, if you will. Or a “trial”, if you want to put a Christian tag on it. It was a horrible experience all the same. Now due to the personal nature of the issue, I am afraid I cannot reveal details about that storm. Why write about it then, you ask? Well, because the story isn’t about the storm, it is about the aftermath – the drowning and the survival.
For about the first two months, even though I felt very hurt, upset and angry, I held on to God. I couldn’t understand how God could possibly bring any good out of it but I forced myself to believe Romans 8:28. Gradually, however, I lost hope. I was angry because God was silent. The questions that some classmates/friends threw at me when we debated religion became my questions. “How can a God who is all good allow evil?”, “How can He just sit up there and silently watch His people suffer?”, and the most pressing one: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Obviously I didn’t get answers to my questions; God was still silent; and I drifted from my faith. I stopped reading the Bible, and I stopped praying as well. I only went to church because my family went. And at church, although I loved hymns, I forced myself to keep silent. It wasn’t arrogance, it was just all the hurt talking. I even thought of God as a sadist because I did not understand His silence while I was hurting.
At the time I was 18 and still in college. I enjoyed sharing Christ with others but now during my final year things were different. I avoided religion talk as much as possible. I remember when at a college fest a friend and I were casually talking about life, the topic slid to God and he asked me a question and I conveniently skirted around it. And as months passed by, I concluded that God did not exist, or at least forced myself to believe so, because surely if God existed, He would not allow horrible things to happen to His people, especially people who did not deserve it. A handful of people tried to help me at different points in this journey but none of their words really comforted me. In hindsight, I don’t blame them because it wasn’t a regular problem off the shelf, and they didn’t really know what to say. Sometimes I didn’t even want ‘help’; I wanted to keep myself busy in an attempt to become numb to reality.
After about two and a half years, my parents felt led by God to switch churches. Things needed to start afresh, they thought, and I agreed with them on this one. This in fact remains one of the best decisions we’ve made as a family. But I’m getting ahead of myself now. In November 2014, we began a new journey. At the age of 21, for the first time, I saw what true and genuine Christianity looked like. It intrigued me and made me think. I eventually conceded that God exists. He always did and I knew that; I was just angry with Him. But I still could not get myself to believe that He was good all the time so I made a deal with God. I decided that the day I realize why He allowed that experience in my life or the moment I see the ‘good’ from it, I would get back to Him. My parents told me that the deal wouldn’t work because God doesn’t work that way but I was stubborn and unwilling to let go.
Then one Sunday the congregation sang a song about how we need God every hour, how we cannot live life without Him, and that broke me. Realization struck me like never before: I was terribly stupid to run away from God, the Creator of this universe. After church, I walked up to my pastor and confessed that I was struggling to believe in God’s goodness. No, he did not sit me down and drown me in scripture. All he said was that I should get back to reading the Bible and praying. “Concentrate on what you believe, and God will slowly answer your doubts in His time,” he said. Now you may not agree with this advice but I think it was brilliant. I didn’t need to put off God until I understood Him completely. Who understands Him completely anyway? Our finite minds will never be able to do that.
In August 2015, I rededicated my life to God. No, everything didn’t turn beautiful (or normal) in one magical moment. It was a process. I firstly acknowledged that He did exist, even though I forced myself to deny it before. Then one particular night, I just wrote pages after pages to Him because my thoughts work better on paper (you’d understand if you’re an introvert yourself). Guilt overwhelmed me and I wondered if God would ever take me back. I had made so many spiteful remarks about God and Christians, I had caused hurt to my family (when they had their own measure of pain to deal with), I had put the Lord’s testimony at stake when I avoided religion talk, I had… I had done so much more. Long story short, I was a hopeless sinner far from God. And now here I was, overridden with guilt, wanting to get my act together, and get back to Him.
You know how the father in the parable of the prodigal son takes him back? While the son was still at a distance, the father saw him, had compassion upon him, ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. Still at a distance. This shows us God’s reaction when we return from being lost in sin. He doesn’t belittle us by reminding us of what we have done. He doesn’t take us back reluctantly; in fact, I was going back reluctantly. But like the father in the parable, He takes us back joyously and eagerly while we are still at a distance – unsure and ashamed. It took me a while to understand that God had forgiven me the moment I had confessed. I just hadn’t forgiven myself. After I finally did, I had to make a conscious effort to turn a deaf ear to the devil each time he reminded me of my past. Even as I write this, I have to do that, and remind myself that even if a reader is going to judge me, it doesn’t matter because the God of this universe has justified me.
Now this is my ‘after’…
Even though I was pretty well-versed with parts of the Bible and certain doctrines, I came to God as a new Christian. Sometimes I think you just have to turn over a new leaf, start anew. I wanted to fall in love with Him all over again. I wanted to understand Him from scratch, like a child in a beginners class at Sunday school. From November 2015, I set aside time for God every day. Regular quiet time/devotion after nearly three years! I started with the book of Hosea because just like the nation of Israel, I also was unfaithful to God. I also committed spiritual adultery and I wanted to learn how God took Israel back. This book helped me understand that God is such a perfect, holy, patient, and jealous God, and that He will do whatever it takes to bring His straying children back to Him. Hosea 11:8 says, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?” That’s the kind of love He had for Israel; a love beyond measure. He is the same God today and He loves us too.
Story credit:http://2praisegod.com/the-prodigal-daughter/
Bible verses:
1) 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
2) Habakkuk 3:17
3) Exodus 33: 18-19
So very encouraging! Thank you - L. Smith
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