Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer…
Psalm 61:1 ESV
Daily… I receive a CS Lewis quote from BibleGateway.com… [they offer many daily devotionals you can subscribe to free for email delivery…]
This morning CS Lewis reminded me… of the first time I experienced His reality… in a supernatural way…
On God
It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. “Look out!” we cry, “it’s alive.” And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back—I would have done so myself if I could—and proceed no further with Christianity. An “impersonal God”—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life- force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God”!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us!
From Miracles
Compiled in Words to Live By
I fully relate to the shock Lewis describes… only mine sounded more like… It’s real…!
The setting for my revelation… (or rather His revealing…) of His reality was a time of great distress… despair…
Crying out to Him in the chair where I prayed regularly… telling Him exactly what would solve my problem… He spoke…
Not audibly…
Not loudly…
But very quietly…
In my spirit…
He simply spoke… a book and chapter…
At the time I wasn’t very familiar with the Bible… but I recognized the name of the book… and His words put an instant halt to my crying…
I grabbed up my Bible… opened to the prescribed book and chapter… and read…
His Word spoke directly to my heart… to my circumstance… to my role in the distress… and how I was to respond… to bring about my heart’s desire…
As I read… I realized He was calling me to change… in order to change the circumstance of my life…
I was a bit miffed really… You want me to change…? I silently prayed…
Then… as the whole experience sunk in…
the reality… of His showing up… speaking directly to me through a portion of His Word… I had never read before…
Well… with a great gasp… and a slamming shut of my Bible…
I declared in my spirit… to myself… This is REAL…!
It was to say the least… shocking…
So shocked was I… in my early faith… I stopped praying for about six weeks…
Lewis’s words… reflect what I felt… at my first intimate… personal… interaction… with the Living God…
This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it — the Lord is his name: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Jeremiah 33:2-3 NIV
[Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash]
Have you had one of these shocking moments…? a revelation of His reality…?
I’d love to hear about it…
Share it with us at this table… leave a reply in the comment box at the bottom of the post…
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