His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love. (Verses 10-11)
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever draws near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Hebrews 11
The first hurdle is to believe that God exists. It seems I've been bombarded lately with the question, "How can we know God exists when we can't see Him or touch Him?" That is a good question, of course. And I lay awake a couple of nights ago talking with my God, Whom I know lives because He has shown Himself to me in more tangible ways than most people I can see, about this perceived enigma some I know struggle with. This may sound very pedestrian, but I almost immediately saw a picture in my mind. A tiny flea was crawling up the leg of a very large dog. I then became the size of the flea and wandered with it through the prickly spiked hairs that jutted out of the dog's skin as if I were wandering through a forest. All I could see was what was before me, so tiny was I that I could only perceive my immediate landscape. The flea proceeded to feed off its host, filling its body with the warm blood of the very large dog. Were I to ask the flea what the dog was like, Do you know how big it is? Do you know where it came from? Do you know what breed?, the flea would be ignorant of all but that it found food in a forest of hairs. That is all a flea knows, for it can't see the bigger picture. Does a dog exist? Yes. The flea can perceive so much about it, too, by wandering its body. Will the flea ever see the whole dog? Nope. It's far too small and its ability to understand the fuller picture is too limited. Is there evidence for the fact that the dog does exist, though? Of course. The flea would have no life without it.
A second hurdle: Does God hear us? In the movie Her, a lonely man named Theodore falls in love with an Operating System named Samantha. She is Suri gone rogue. He develops a deep relationship with her, confiding in her daily concerning everything in his life. Theodore feels loved and special...until he discovers Samantha can speak with over 8000 people at the same time, so that while she is speaking with Theodore about his life, she is also speaking with at least 7999 others about theirs. This is, of course, possible via the internet. If we can believe that a manmade operating system can communicate with thousands of people at one time, which it can, then why is it so hard to believe the Spirit of God can know us and hear our prayers individually as well as corporately? Samanthas don't exist, but God does. His mind is far superior to any computer we will ever create. The One Who designed DNA, encrypting each cell with the information that makes us who we are, is intimately acquainted with the systems He put into motion in less than a second after the big bang.
A third hurdle: What's the benefit of belief? What difference does it make, anyway? If we believe that drawing near to God takes a certain level of belief that He exists, then knowing Him must be of some value. I think the question must come from those who haven't yet drawn close, because once we do, that is its own benefit. To be closer to understanding the whole picture, the knowledge that God is Spirit and omnipresent; that He is brilliant and omniscient; that He is strong and omnipotent. How could He be eternally greater than everything and confine Himself to flesh and blood that we could touch? BUT...He did that. For a season. In Jesus Christ.
On the night of His arrest, Jesus was sitting with the disciples observing the Passover meal with them. Jesus has just finished washing the feet of His friends and was making them aware of what was about to happen that evening. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known my Father, also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."
Phillip said what I've been hearing lately, "Teacher, show us the Father and it will be enough for us."
"Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?'"
God come to Earth to let us touch His skin and look into His eyes. God come to this tiny speck in the universe, become small like us to give us His perspective, allow us to see the whole thing for what it is. The flea on the back of the dog so we are aware of something so much greater that it boggles our finite minds and goads them to see the infinite. Died and rose again back into the eternal, leaving us with the understanding that God is tenderhearted, forgiving, steadfast in His love for His creation to the point of experiencing our death to give us His life. Life abundantly (John 10:10). Apart from the host, we shrivel and die. That is our great benefit. That we don't only live a mundane existence traveling through the woods, but that we know the One Who loves us, know Him to our core, in a way that we can never truly experience humanity. Because we are spirit as well as body.
If we can't get to it any other way, this understanding that God exists and loves us, I say take a walk. Look around. Look up. Breathe. Marvel, as I do, that water sticks to the globe that is our earth. That it doesn't fly off the spinning ball we walk all over. That we don't go whooshing out into space to be lost in the billions of galaxies out there. Marvel at the stars, at the moon, at the fact that the tides are set so that if Earth were just the tiniest bit off its axis, all would be out of control. Wonder at the camera lens that is your eye, taking pictures of everything around it and sending them to the brain. Better than the I-phone 6. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Evidence of a mind greater than we can box up and give as a Christmas gift. So big we will never, this side of eternity, grasp the grandeur of it.
God knows we exist. He made us. Each one. The hubris we display by trusting in our own wisdom, our own ideas, our own power is as ridiculous as the flea saying, "There is no dog."
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever draws near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Hebrews 11
The first hurdle is to believe that God exists. It seems I've been bombarded lately with the question, "How can we know God exists when we can't see Him or touch Him?" That is a good question, of course. And I lay awake a couple of nights ago talking with my God, Whom I know lives because He has shown Himself to me in more tangible ways than most people I can see, about this perceived enigma some I know struggle with. This may sound very pedestrian, but I almost immediately saw a picture in my mind. A tiny flea was crawling up the leg of a very large dog. I then became the size of the flea and wandered with it through the prickly spiked hairs that jutted out of the dog's skin as if I were wandering through a forest. All I could see was what was before me, so tiny was I that I could only perceive my immediate landscape. The flea proceeded to feed off its host, filling its body with the warm blood of the very large dog. Were I to ask the flea what the dog was like, Do you know how big it is? Do you know where it came from? Do you know what breed?, the flea would be ignorant of all but that it found food in a forest of hairs. That is all a flea knows, for it can't see the bigger picture. Does a dog exist? Yes. The flea can perceive so much about it, too, by wandering its body. Will the flea ever see the whole dog? Nope. It's far too small and its ability to understand the fuller picture is too limited. Is there evidence for the fact that the dog does exist, though? Of course. The flea would have no life without it.
A second hurdle: Does God hear us? In the movie Her, a lonely man named Theodore falls in love with an Operating System named Samantha. She is Suri gone rogue. He develops a deep relationship with her, confiding in her daily concerning everything in his life. Theodore feels loved and special...until he discovers Samantha can speak with over 8000 people at the same time, so that while she is speaking with Theodore about his life, she is also speaking with at least 7999 others about theirs. This is, of course, possible via the internet. If we can believe that a manmade operating system can communicate with thousands of people at one time, which it can, then why is it so hard to believe the Spirit of God can know us and hear our prayers individually as well as corporately? Samanthas don't exist, but God does. His mind is far superior to any computer we will ever create. The One Who designed DNA, encrypting each cell with the information that makes us who we are, is intimately acquainted with the systems He put into motion in less than a second after the big bang.
A third hurdle: What's the benefit of belief? What difference does it make, anyway? If we believe that drawing near to God takes a certain level of belief that He exists, then knowing Him must be of some value. I think the question must come from those who haven't yet drawn close, because once we do, that is its own benefit. To be closer to understanding the whole picture, the knowledge that God is Spirit and omnipresent; that He is brilliant and omniscient; that He is strong and omnipotent. How could He be eternally greater than everything and confine Himself to flesh and blood that we could touch? BUT...He did that. For a season. In Jesus Christ.
On the night of His arrest, Jesus was sitting with the disciples observing the Passover meal with them. Jesus has just finished washing the feet of His friends and was making them aware of what was about to happen that evening. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known my Father, also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."
Phillip said what I've been hearing lately, "Teacher, show us the Father and it will be enough for us."
"Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?'"
God come to Earth to let us touch His skin and look into His eyes. God come to this tiny speck in the universe, become small like us to give us His perspective, allow us to see the whole thing for what it is. The flea on the back of the dog so we are aware of something so much greater that it boggles our finite minds and goads them to see the infinite. Died and rose again back into the eternal, leaving us with the understanding that God is tenderhearted, forgiving, steadfast in His love for His creation to the point of experiencing our death to give us His life. Life abundantly (John 10:10). Apart from the host, we shrivel and die. That is our great benefit. That we don't only live a mundane existence traveling through the woods, but that we know the One Who loves us, know Him to our core, in a way that we can never truly experience humanity. Because we are spirit as well as body.
If we can't get to it any other way, this understanding that God exists and loves us, I say take a walk. Look around. Look up. Breathe. Marvel, as I do, that water sticks to the globe that is our earth. That it doesn't fly off the spinning ball we walk all over. That we don't go whooshing out into space to be lost in the billions of galaxies out there. Marvel at the stars, at the moon, at the fact that the tides are set so that if Earth were just the tiniest bit off its axis, all would be out of control. Wonder at the camera lens that is your eye, taking pictures of everything around it and sending them to the brain. Better than the I-phone 6. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Evidence of a mind greater than we can box up and give as a Christmas gift. So big we will never, this side of eternity, grasp the grandeur of it.
God knows we exist. He made us. Each one. The hubris we display by trusting in our own wisdom, our own ideas, our own power is as ridiculous as the flea saying, "There is no dog."
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