Knowing Him

Sometimes I feel like I subscribe to too many email devotionals that it would be better to receive fewer and soak up what those few said. However, I have not been able to dwindled them down because there tends to be extremely goods one from each of the sources. One that really struck me was about knowing God. As I read it and felt the Lord's tug at my own heart, I also couldn't help but to think each and every one of us at some point have felt so helpless, so lonely, and so desperate. I wanted to share my thoughts in hopes that others are also blessed and encouraged.

Someone has defined loneliness as "the surprising opportunity to know God". Boy how true that is!!! It is in the pits and valleys of life that we realize we truly have no one BUT God. However, it is also then that we realize HE is the only one we need! I know we live in a world that focuses on relationships: relationships with siblings, spouses, children, parents, friends. Oh how all those are so very precious and so very important and as emotional humans we have a great need for those relationships. However, they are not to be our focal point nor our main purpose for life.

I’m sure we’ve all endured times of loneliness in which even with these relationships around us, we still feel so alone. Sometimes the loss of a relationship, whether it be a spouse, or friend, or even death of a family member, is literal and the relationship exists no more. The loneliness can then be intensified with the hopelessness of the relationship gone for whatever reason.

So, just as it is when we discover God is the only one we have and the one we need, it is also in this time…the pit and valley…that we really discover God, for Himself. We discover who He is and we become to KNOW Him better…really know Him.

Oh how I KNOW the road of loneliness and feeling of desperation is SO hard but I know it helps us a great deal to focus on the prize, focus on His work that is being done in us. Just knowing that we are choosing to draw closer to God and allow Him to comfort us, that DOES make our painful journeys worthwhile..."worth far more than the cost." Anything, and everything, for HIS glory!

It's a concept that I believe has to go past our minds and past OUR hearts’ desires and make it to our broken heart so as to transform our pain to closeness with the Almighty. It is a challenge to look past the pits and valleys and see the true prize of growing so much closer to God and truly knowing Him and even experiencing Him. What an honor and privilege to say we know the Almighty of Almighties. Is there not anything worth enduring to get to that point? We must look outside the box and outside our pain to see there truly IS! The experience of loneliness is not easy to go through, but believe me, it is worth far more than the cost. Trust me, it is a huge transformation to be able to say what we've lost or what we've endured is worth gaining the closeness with God. We want both: to truly know and have that closeness with God and not have to endure that pain, travel through the pit, or give up that dream or desire. God’s first and primary goal is not to fill our loneliness with human relationships but rather to fill us with Him and to become more and more like His Precious Son, Christ our Lord.

There is loneliness that comes to all who fail to realize that God always gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him. Stop a moment and ponder on that again.

It has been said that our Father is "the God of remarkable surprises". Now, isn’t that true. In the worst of our times, in the depths of our pains, in the loneliest of our moments, God approaches us and reveals the most fascinating things to us. Not only does He show Himself in ways we could never imagine but He performs in ways that are not fathomable. Ephesians 3:20 tells us “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Wow. How much greater is it than while in the depths of our loneliness and the trials of our life, that God does things we never conceived possible, particular in such dire circumstances. But He is God and He can do it all. Remember “nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37) Though “with man this is impossible…” Matthew 19:26.

"When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who knows my way." Psalm 142:3

Prayer:
Father, something within me still shrinks away from the challenge that You are putting before me. Help me to understand that in order to know You - really know You - I must be willing, not just to trust, but obey. I must be able to see past my trials and valleys and see You standing ahead of me, preparing the way, and preparing for purposeful and glorious outcomes only found in You. There is no greater loneliness than being trapped in our own purposes and desires. Help me to be continually centered in You and not in myself or things of this world. In Jesus’ Precious Name, Amen.

Be Blessed In Him,
Paula