OC February 10th
"Look up into the heavens. Who created the stars?" Isaiah 40:26 NLT
Today's devotional tied into a lot of what we were discussing in bible study this morning - our new life in Christ, and how our intentions and focus should be firmly placed in God. We are studying 1 Peter, and in chapter 2 Peter is telling us that we must "get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech." (1 Peter 2:1 NLT). To do so we must seek what is pure. God and His word. Get our spiritual nourishment there. In doing so we are making that our cornerstone, and not the things of this world, that we seek and set as idols in place of God.
Some quotes from the devotional:
"The people of God in Isaiah's time had blinded their minds' ability to see God by looking on the face of idols."
"Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? It is your work? It is your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification?"
"Go beyond yourself and away from the faces of your idols and away from everything else that has been blinding your thinking. Wake up and accept the ridicule that Isaiah gave to his people, and deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God."
I loved how Chambers uses this scripture to paint the picture of creation, of nature. How, although we cannot physically see God, we can see His creation. I love the outdoors, and I know that He is what draws me to it. I have such peace being in it and feel closer to Him when I am in the field. Chambers encourages us to use nature as a tool to visualize God.
"If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it."
"The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced."
So I will lift my eyes up. Away from my distractions, my idols - myself, my work. . . I will put down my phone and spend time with Him in His creation. "Deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God."
He is here with us. We must be intentional and deliberate - devoted, dedicated - to activity and time spent with Him. Chambers tells us to visualize it. Placing myself before Him. Closing my eyes and seeing Him on the throne, on the cross, at the base of a tree in a meadow on a deer hunt. . .
He says that "One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God."
If you want to see God, there is nothing stopping you but yourself. Place yourself before Him. He has already told us He will be there.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" Matthew 7:7 ESV
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