The other day, while I was praying, God read my (personal) mail. It may not translate very well into French, but it's an English expression that means he told me the secrets of my heart. And it was pure concern.
You know those times when you come into His presence and He takes you on a journey through unusual paths and ends up mooring you in a most wonderful harbor. Yes. It is the privilege of the Omniscient who knows what is needed and when it is needed, while we are sometimes unconscious and only react when everything falls on our heads. Having come as usual to speak with my Father, I hear myself praying unexpected things, bringing up subjects that had vaguely crossed my mind but without particularly worrying me, and receiving the answer and clear and beneficial directives; a potential problem mastered before manifestation. Hats off. What attention, what thoughtfulness, what love, what power, what kindness; He explodes the superlatives. Finally, what a Father.
God the Father. This is where it all comes together.
The other Sunday we ended the teaching on the nature of God with the fatherhood of God. God is our Father. This is what makes His omniscience, His goodness, His power, His sovereignty, His faithfulness, et al., truly have such personal meaning for us. This wonderful, perfect, excellent being, infinite in His abilities and wisdom, so different from us, and so much better than us, the One who has no equal, is God and I honor and admire Him as such, but then He does more, He calls me His child; He offers me the only thing of value, His Father's love.
All this was overwhelming me before the message, and I felt unable to say much. But grace prevailed and the message came through with surprising force; but, but; the fact remains that what was said is nothing like anything that could be said. So, while everyone was raving about the message, I had the same thought that usually occurs in similar circumstances: 'Oh, if they only knew; a quarter of it has not and never can be said.' That is, the reality of God surpasses all expression.
A reality that challenges any capacity for expression. And when we use superlatives to describe God, some suspect us of being guilty of exaggeration, or victims of heightened romanticism, or even that it would be a certain natural penchant for prose that would explain these lyrical flights when speaking of the Most High. But no. He is simply indescribable. To see Him is to lose one's breath, one's capacity for language; and worship takes shape when I can no longer say anything to Him. To praise Him, to know Him is to adore Him. This is the basis of our worship, the vision of Him that dwells within us, the appreciation we have for His person. But we do not admire Him enough.
Nothing in our experience can truly allow us to grasp God in His fullness. No one is His spitting image. Comparisons and similarities give us a glimpse, an image, but everything human has been corrupted by the fall and is therefore necessarily imperfect. Thus we struggle to follow and obey Him while harboring erroneous ideas about Him. The result is a hesitant, uncertain walk, constant questioning, if not the opposite: indifference and total blindness. Assurance, lightness, freedom are absent.
The worst thing is that some would have us believe that the relationship with a sovereign, perfect, powerful God can only be like this given our imperfection; except that this God also chose to adopt us; except that Jesus came precisely to reverse the situation. The kingdom of God is that They know You, You the only true God, an intimate, deep knowledge, so intimate that His Spirit Himself reassures us, testifies that we are children of God; so intimate that His Spirit makes us cry out for joy, cry out for 'Daddy' (Abba)., and who says Daddy, says absence of terror, of uncertainty, who says Daddy says trust, says love, says, yes COMPLICITY.
Being an accomplice with God is possible, it is offered, it is accessible. It begins with a single life objective around which everything else revolves; a primary, major, fundamental, capital, essential and unavoidable objective: to know God intimately, to become His friend, His ally, and to place one's whole life at His disposal. All preaching has this as its end, to reveal the person and the infinitely varied wisdom of God; the Bible has this as its end, to reveal the person and the thought of God. And this is what I aspire to for the people in my care: that they know Him deeply, intimately and live in Him wonderfully.
Shalom
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