Our Lord God is omniscient. He is omnipotent. Therefore He is everywhere, knows everything for all times. He is the Alpha and Omega -- the Beginning and the End. Did you know that in the Bible, He is referred to as Lord God only in Genesis (the first book of the Bible) and again in Revelation (the last book)? But during those times in our lives in which we need Him the most, He doesn't seem to be around. I know that He is, of course, that He has chosen this distance for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons, I believe, is to test us -- to see if we will remain loyal to Him in silence or, if left to our own devices, we will turn toward a golden calf of our making.
Another reason, perhaps, is that He desires for us to seek Him. God has given us different and simple ways for us to understand how a personal relationship with Him would/should work, the most common example being "falling in love." Disney called it "twitterpated" in Bambi. It's that first, initial attraction and subsequent pursuit. Life becomes crazy for us. We experience feelings that don't make sense...but we like them.
Puppy love.
For those of us in marriage relationships, we know the importance of going out on dates so we can perpetuate special moments and keep the flame going. Every now and then it's also important to do things that remind us of those days and months (and years) of pursuit when we were head-over-heels for each other. In the silent times in our lives, when God feels distant, I think He is reminding us of the special relationship we share with Him.
For those who aren't married, who date regularly, you are always experiencing that awesome sensation of pursuit, of desiring or being desired. Keep in mind that God has been pursuing us since before we were born. He already has a vested interest in us (after all, His Son died for us, thus purchasing us for a price). God, Himself, said it is not good for man to be alone -- and we hate loneliness!
So many of us experience a freedom, an elation, an exuberance when we
turn our lives over to Christ for the first time. We can also compare that to relationships. As we move from one relationship to another, it's human nature to compare; by doing so, we make a semi-educated decision if that person is the one. By comparing our lives before knowing Jesus to after, we can recall those amazing feelings of pursuit and puppy love. We are reminded of where we've been, ponder where we are and trust God to guide us where we're going because we've seen how He's guided us thus far.
Taylor Swift, I believe, doesn't get the credit she deserves. Not only has she consistently turned out catchy number-one hit after hit (and all against the odds, by the way), she is a good, down-to-earth person. One of her latest, Begin Again, encapsulates these wonderful feelings of new love and of being valued for who we are by comparing our new feelings to those we felt while trapped in another dead-end relationship.
Did you feel valued before you came to know Christ? Were you alone in the world? What about after? He wants to be sought, He wants to be desired by us. He wants to be pursued!
As God transforms us, we begin to have purpose, to have a direction we didn't have before. People that don't understand call us crazy and that's okay! As we mature and those incredible feelings on the inside start to show on the outside, it becomes contagious. Those that didn't formerly understand begin to want to understand.
In a marriage, the love we share with our mate only deepens and matures...if properly nurtured. I love my wife more each passing day. She amazes me in new ways. She shares things with me that just awe me sometimes. That's how it is to love and be loved by God.
Attraction to each other comes and goes and comes again for the duration - it's a fact of long-term relationships. But our love remains. Loving God is the same. As we read the Scriptures, as we seek to know Him, our love for Him only strengthens. Because we're human, and circumstances smack us in the face every now and then, loving God doesn't seem attractive to us, but we come around. The love remains. On the other hand, His love for us doesn't waiver. His attraction to us goes on, no matter how ugly we can make ourselves!
Another reason for silence might lie in the fact that He's busy working out the road ahead. Yes, He's still with us, guiding us one footstep and at a time. But He's also clearing the road of debris, or opening a tunnel, or developing new construction. I'll use this as a segue into my next post because this is where God has been during my time of silence. I'm excited to share it with you because it has been exciting to see how He's been moving in not only my life, but in lives around the globe!
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