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Scripture:
Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. (Psalm 66:8-12)Reflections:
How do we expect our experience with God would be? Perfect? Indeed. However, perfect experience with God does not mean that there is an absence of struggles and difficulties. The perfection of our experience does not depend on our circumstances, rather it is in who are we with through that experience. It is our perfect God who makes that experience perfect.Again, perfect experience with God does not mean that there is an absence of afflictions. Perfect experience with Him is brought by His presence itself.
gotquestions.org states that the concept of “experiencing God” is not explicitly found in Scripture for nowhere does the Bible tell us to “experience God.”. They have concluded that the key to experiencing God is not expecting an “experience” or an emotional lift.
Moving forward, do we really experience God, or is it His Word and love that we experience?
Before we answer that, isn’t it written in John 1:1 that the Word was God, and in 1 John 4:8 that God is love? So brothers and sisters in Christ, when we get to experience His attributes, it is already Him whom we experience firsthand.
Through Christ we come to know God, and also through Him we get to experience God. Jesus said in John 14:6 that He is the only way to the Father. We owe to Christ's life, death, and resurrection that we are able to encounter God having our sins forgiven and our souls saved.
Moreover, each of us in fact is experiencing God in our everyday lives. However, we fail to recognize and acknowledge it.
Experiencing God Requires Spiritual Maturity
Experiencing God does not denote that we get to feel His presence. For us to recognize that it is an encounter that we have with Him, we have to be spiritually matured knowing that His nearness is perceived rather than sensed.Experiencing God Requires Right Focus
The more that we fix our eyes on our distressing situation, the more that we will fail to ascertain that we are indeed experiencing God. We must therefore direct our attention to the thing that God does for us rather than to what the world offers us.Experiencing God Requires a Personal Relationship
Intimacy with the Lord is attainable when we know Him personally. Knowing who God is, we will be able to apprehend that even our troubles are experiences that we have with Him.If David had not had a personal relationship with God, He would not have intuited that He is the One who preserves their lives and kept their feet from slipping. If He had not had the right focus, He would have stuck his eyes in their afflictive situation, and would not see that God had brought them into a place of abundance. If He had not been matured enough, He would not have told the people to praise God and make their songs audible amidst their infirmities.
God allows us to experience Him through His Word, through His works, and through His ways.
We experience God through His Word as we meditate on it day and night. Living it out enables us to fully grasp the message that He is wanting us to receive.
We experience God through His works; His creation. This does not exclude our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
We experience God through His ways, which He says in Isaiah 55:9 are higher than ours. His means may seem contrary to what we expect, but it brings fulfillment.
Perfect experience with God is experiencing His fullness, and it includes the ups and lows of Christian living.
God would put us into trials. He would purify us like silver and would make us go through fires and waters. He would even let us be imprisoned. He would place burden in us, and would allow intimidating authorities be above us.
He does this so that we can experience His entirety. He wants to tell us that He is not just our God when there is an abundance of blessings. He desires for us to know that when agony is in the proximity, He still is our God.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
(Psalms 34:8)
Let our tongues taste, our eyes see, and our wholeness experience the goodness of the Lord not just in moments of comfort, but even in the state of distress. Through Christ, whom God's own glory is radiated and character is expressed He is experienced. That, with no doubt is the perfect experience.
Photo by: Zee Gabales
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