Series: Love
I John 4:8 ESV
Years ago when I was in college a book came out about knowing God.
As of today (more than 50 years later) the book is still relevant and has been translated into hundreds of languages.
The book was transformational for me because he wrote about waiting on God. Reading that in a book was important to me for personal reasons.
Growing up my dad had told me hundreds of times to “wait on God”. He followed that up by reminding me God had not failed me and would not fail me ever.
When I first read the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer the book resonated with me on many levels.
In Knowing God, J.I. Packer wrote, “Wait on the Lord" is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.”
Understand that when I was a young adult I liked the book because it reiterated concepts my dad had talked about all my life. At the same time I was not yet so excited about fully practicing waiting on God with great enthusiasm.
I was enthusiastic about God.
I was not patient about the actual ‘waiting’.
When I was younger I was constantly in ‘fizzie’ mode. I wanted life to be easy and I did not want to practice patience.
I knew in my head God wasn’t into instant answers, but in my heart I still did not want to do the hard part…the waiting.
I wanted to be mature in the faith and I wanted it right now.
I did not yet understand that the gift…the real gift was not the answers to my prayers. It wasn’t about God healing Jane or helping Jim find a job.
The real gift was God.
When I was young I failed to see that every time I closed my eyes and called on the name of the Lord I was becoming the person God wanted me to be.
Through God’s love every day, every time I closed my eyes and called on the name of the Lord I was ever so gradually coming to rely on God’s love in every part of my life.
It really was about God’s love. After all, God IS love.
I John 4:8 tells us, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
In my mind the light that Packer wrote about was the revelation of who God IS.
So, I spent years running here and running there looking for who God is. Every time a new organization came out with a new idea about how to become a mature believer, I bought the book and tried the method.
I AM a bookish sort…
I did learn a lot from the books I read. But somehow I still felt like something was missing. I had no idea what that was…but I knew God had the answer.
It’s one of those things I can laugh about now. I can laugh because the answer was right in front of me. I can laugh because if I would have ‘slowed’ the pace of my life and actually started spending time with God I would have known the answer.
The answer to knowing God was God.
Sitting in silence with God gives us the gift of God. The reason the love of God holds the clue is that no matter what, God loves us because God IS love.
In the same way, God is light…in God there is no darkness.
Waiting for God reveals the light and the love.
When we sit with God and wait the Spirit of God brings everlasting peace in our heart and mind.
Perhaps you now know why I talk about sitting in the silence of God. The answers…the love, the light, the peace are found in the silence of God.
So the funny thing about how I came to a point of realization about knowing God is at some point I stopped struggling without God. I stopped trying to do it on my own. Still ever so gradually, step by step and inch by inch, I wanted God more and more and because of that I found myself spending more and more time with God.
Then gradually I wanted to just sit in silence with God.
And then the silence became beautiful.
The peace of God became perfect.
It was so perfect that I forgot what I was going to ask God to do.
All I wanted (want) is to sit with God.
Spiritual Practice: Sit with God
Wherever you are in your journey with God, spend a few seconds or a few hours sitting with God.
In God, Deborah
Bình luận