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You know that feeling of wishing you had learned something earlier in life? I’ve said this to myself many times in my head, just wishing I had learned this or that earlier so maybe circumstances I have lived through could have gone differently. But then I am reminded, this isn’t our timeline. We learn things right on time, God’s timing and He has us physically, mentally and spiritually right where He wants us. Isaiah 60.22 tells us, “At the right time, I, the Lord will make it happen.” It is so easy to get lost in the temporary things that this world offers us. What keeps you grounded and standing firm on the foundation of what really matters? What helps point you back to that eternal perspective of seeing things not in the now, but for the long game? Life is short, eternity is long so live for the long game and not the now game. Live in peace knowing that life is already in the hands of God and His timing for everything is perfect. It is easier said than done, but once you get a taste of eternity by studying God’s word, through prayer, within hearing His voice, and through the valleys of darkness, that eternal perspective becomes much more clear.
We all walk different journeys on this earth. We all make decisions- some good and some not so good. With all those decisions, we have stories that have shaped us into the person God created us to be. With our time here, that God has gifted us with, it is all set out for us to live and learn through. The person I was twelve, fifteen, twenty years ago is a much different version of who I am now. I have the same heart, the same soul, and the same mind but with living and learning through this path that God has lead me on, I have shifted, I have changed and most importantly I have been transformed because of our Heavenly Father that has never changed. God is with us no matter if we acknowledge His presence, His voice and His work within us and in all things. God was and has been the loudest voice in my head when I was at my lowest, and during my most broken moments. It is hard to be mad at the brokenness we walk through when you understand that it brings you closer to Jesus. Once you feel the peace from His presence and can understand, without fully understanding, that that peace is only from Him, you never go backwards. It was a point of no return for me. He was the only way I survived the brokenness that He allowed me to walk through. No matter what your story looks like and whether you recognize the voice of God with you on your journey or not, He is near you. God wants you to see He wants to be near you helping you along the way. Nothing is too big or too far out of reach for God. No sin can keep you too far from God once you have made the choice to believe in Him and to receive Him.
One of the most beautiful moments that I was able to witness over the past year, was watching a friend that is from a different country open up week after week about how she was raised and what they were told to believe. Her background and her story is hers so I will just say, her journey and teachings were much different from how I was taught and raised. The beauty in her expressions and her quiet humble spirit that she carries within her came alive week after week as she opened up more about how she was told to literally chase up a flight of stairs after a god that was unreachable, and what she happened to find on her way up those same stairs climbing to a god she had never encountered. As she slowly gasped for more air to finish her sentence, she whispered “it was one day as I was climbing up the stairs that I learned that as I was climbing up to reach a god that I didn’t know, Jesus was coming down to get to me.” There were more steps to her journey, little seeds God had planted along the way from people that probably had no idea what would grow within her, but God knew. Seeing her amazement as she replayed stretching out her arms as high as she could to reach for something that felt like a dead end and finding that God was near her already was something I will never forget witnessing in her. She had encountered our Heavenly Father while she was climbing up to nowhere chasing something that she was taught to do and what most of her friends were doing. But God was and is always working and no one is too far from Him that His power can’t get to. This was her no going back moment. Once you feel the presence of God and His power within you, there is no return to the way that once was when you were off stretching up, climbing up and chasing something that would never satisfy you fully.
We will never live up to the way or climb high enough that we deserve what Jesus did for all of us on the cross. But listening, learning, sharing and believing in the one true God that sent Jesus to live, to die and that was resurrected back to life, by God’s power, to save all of us is the only way to fully be alive and to never perish but have everlasting life.
How can we better recognize God’s voice and His ways? This was something when I was younger I didn’t even have to think about because life was simple and much less noisy. I could hear God in the day to day because I started learning about God through reading His words in the Bible, surrounding myself with people who love God and love people well and by talking to God throughout my days. Just like feeling the wind but not being able to see it, God is that near to us. We can’t see Him, but we can feel His presence all around us when we are able to slow down long enough to notice His presence. Learning about His nearness and presence as a child helped me better understand that just because things are not seen, does not mean they do not exist. God’s voice was loud in my childhood but His power became visible to me through the brokenness of losing my brother, Sean. As I tried to hold myself together in front of my family and friends through the darkness of unknowns, God walked me back into His promises, His timeline and His power through knowing His voice in not so much of a whisper but in a louder tone that helped me navigate continuing to follow Him. It was and still is a choice and a discipline to want to stay in His word. His nearness still to this day has me always wanting to know Him more.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28
I’ve written this before, but for anyone that feels overwhelmed by thinking where do I even start with reading the Bible, start with the book of John. Getting to know the New Testament scriptures first, helped me recognize God’s plan within the Old Testament. It all points back to Jesus and is a beautiful love story. The best way to hear God’s voice is by reading His words, knowing scripture and keeping an open dialogue with Him throughout your days. Even if that prayer conversation starts with or just is, Jesus take the wheel. That prayer alone is a start in recognizing that you can’t do this on your own because we were never created to do any of this on our own and that God is in control of all things. We need God in every detail of our lives and no matter if we see Him in the details or not, He is there. No climb necessary.
You are loved.
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalm 46.1