Through Coloured Glasses – pt. 2

Awe is a part of all of us and it directs and moves us in ways that we often do not see. All the beauty around us was meant to draw us towards the one who created all things and allow us to see many of His divine qualities. Many centuries ago the king David wrote “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.” Psalms 19:1 NLV.

What often happens though is we begin to see God not through what He has made and put on display for us to know Him more, but through what is happening in our natural world. We see Him through the mistakes people make and the problems that we face. We tend to lose sight of His nature and character and instead define Him by what we understand of our world and our circumstances. This is something we see in the life of Job in the bible and most of the other people we read about in scripture. It is a trait that is common to all of us as humans. Like us, and many other people in scripture Job began to see God through his circumstances, and began to complain against God. Job was a man who did his best to do everything right. He followed all of God’s commands and worked hard to make sure that he made ammends for everything he may have done wrong, but also for everything his family may have done wrong as well. In fact God even noticed and spoke of Job as being “the finest man in all the earth who is blameless and a man of complete integrity.”

And even though Job was right before God his life fell apart. His children died in a freak accident. His livestock was stolen and servants killed by bandits. His home was destroyed. In a single day Job went from being one of the wealthiest men to having nothing at all. And as if that wasn’t the worst he became sick and was covered in sores. Job was having a very bad day. And for awhile he held true to his belief about God. Even when his friends came to criticize and correct him, and his wife told him to curse God and die, he held his ground and his circumstance was simply what he was living through. After several days of this his story began to change and he began to see God differently. And he began to see God not as God was, but through his problems and circumstances. And he began to complain “What have I done to deserve this treatment.” Job 30:24 MSG. Job began to see himself as right and God as wrong. His attitude got so bad God actually came to speak to him personally and asks him “Where were you when I created the earth? Did you teach the birds to fly? Did you deternime the measurements and foundations of the earth?”

Job was a man who lost his sense of awe and began to see God differently. And through encountering God again his awe was restored. When God spoke to Job his response was ” I am speechless, in awe- words fail me.” Job came to realize how his view had changed and needed to be adjusted. And like Job the same had to happen in my life, and I came to see God not for who I thought he was through my circumstances, but simply for who He actually was. And that allowed me freedom despite my circumstances because God promised to be with us no matter what we went through. And He never changes.

A man who came to understand the nature and character of God regardless of what he went through was Abraham. Abraham was not a man who did everything perfectly and he definitely was not a man who always followed exactly what God said to do. He didn’t always live a blessed life and his life wasn’t without troubles. But through it all he walked with and came to know who God was and it guided him throughout his entire life. When God promised Abraham a son he was a young man. But Abraham never saw the fulfillment of that promise for many years. It wasn’t until he was 100 years old that God’s promise to him was realized. But that didn’t cause Abraham to waiver. He still believed in God’s nature and character. “And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.” Romans 4:19-21 NLT.

We all have to look at our live and see what we are believing about God and if our understanding is being filtered through our circumstances and understanding or if we are actually seeing Him for who He is. Only when we see Him as He truly is can our awe for Him be what it is supposed to be, and only then can we truly follow Him as we should.