Known
I think one of the greatest Christian "fibs" is that we should be able to "feel" God. This is wonderful when it appears to be true, which I really do have an argument with, but it is totally condemning when we don't.
To "know" God is a mystery. How can we really know God? This is why we call our spiritual journey “faith”. If we really “knew” like we strive to it wouldn’t be “faith” any more. It would be called “fact”.
If we base our spirituality of feelings we are at the mercy of them. We use our feelings and emotions like little gauges that approve or disapprove us. What a hopeless state.
If we base our spirituality on what we do, what we know and what we feel then God is defined by us... we find ourselves waiting for him, measuring his distance from us by our emotions, by our human existence.... this is a recipe for complete failure. Our spirituality implodes as it is totally at the mercy of ourselves.
I can only offer you one comfort.
God "knows" you. Think about that. It is an extraordinary truth. It is outrageous.
I spend most of my life not knowing, not feeling, incapable of doing, feeling alone and isolated, however one thing changes everything... I am known by God.
Look at the Jesus stories in the Gospels. Jesus did not come for those who thought they could "know God", or "feel God"... he came to the lost and lonely, he gave hope to the lost and lonely, he refused to judge even though it was so clear that he knew all that there was to know about them..see Jn 4. This is the Jesus who knows me. He does not judge me, he offers me hope, even when I have no hope of my own, he offers me faithfulness even when I have none of my own, Jesus, by becoming a man, offers me an identification of my flesh even when I am caught in the consequences of my humanity.
God in Jesus "knows" me, he "knows" you.
He is the healer not the hurter, the acceptor not the rejecter, the lover not the excluder.. the forgiver and never the judge. Jesus takes our fallen humanity, in all it's flaws and failures and
"knows" and "accepts" us, unconditionally, a grace that is unmerited and free. Whether we feel it or not, whether we know it or not there is no power in all eternity that will change the reality that God, in Christ, not only knows you, he loves you, he accepts you for you are forgiven and accepted and free.
This is the beginning of great meditation.
Too wonderful for words.
Grace and peace
posted by Unknown at 7:36 pm
4 Comments:
Wow Geoff. So encouraging, so true
Thanks heaps for your encouragement Janet.
Have a blessed day.
Thank you for posting this Geoff! I must agree with you. I have just never had the words to express it like you have.
This especially relates to the apparent 'feeling' of God in a worship session. Now I'm a devoted christian and I do not question God or feeling him but there are definitely times when you get similar 'feelings' during secular concerts as well.
If these feelings are of God in a Christian venue, what are they off elsewhere? It comes back to the point you have made about us basing our spirituality on feelings and becoming at the mercy of the feelings themselves. I totally agree.
Bless you Arun,
"Feeling God" does not in any way prove his existence.
His grace and love comes to us because God is gracious and loving, this is not a reward, or a consequence of our actions, God IS love. The cross shows us that Jesus love for us goes far beyond all that we do or say. Jesus has chosen to grace us, love us, bless us, forgive us and accept us, purely on the basis of his nature. This is his choice and we are freed from the fear that God may reject us because of our broken and frail humanity.
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