Just Some Thoughts

            There are times in our spiritual lives that God is very real to us, perhaps we have had a ‘mountain top’ experience where God has spoken quite clearly to us.  Those are wonderful moments when we’ve been in close contact with God.  We have felt His very real Presence and perhaps have experienced some answers to prayers that have overwhelmed us with thanksgiving and joy.  I know I have had those moments in my walk with the Lord.  In those times it’s easier to be obedient and surrendered to God.  However, those moments can be somewhat rare.  All of us at one time or another has felt that our prayers go no higher than the ceiling.  Of course, that is not true.  God always hears, but we don’t always ‘feel’ that He is hearing us.  Or perhaps God has not responded to our prayer requests as we would like, and so we are discouraged, feeling like He hasn’t heard us, or even that He doesn’t care.  In those moments how surrendered are we to the Lord?  Where is our faith?  Do we find it difficult to be obedient when we don’t ‘feel’ like He is there? 

2 Corinthians 5: 7 says, “We live by faith, not by sight.”  I believe that God wants us to walk by faith.  Certainly, He gives us, as Oswald Chambers says, “rare moments of inspiration”, but that is not where we are to live our lives.  We can’t recreate those mountain top experiences with God, nor should we.  The majority of us live in the valleys most of the time.  This is where we live by faith, not by sight.  We must trust God even when He seems far away because the reality is that He is right beside us every single day of our lives, whether we ‘feel’ it or not.  That is an absolute Truth!  Certainly, we can be encouraged and our faith can be strengthened by looking back at those very close moments with the Lord, but we must not live in those moments.  We must move on and trust Him for the day to day living of our lives, especially when we do feel like our prayers go no higher than the ceiling.  Oswald Chambers also says in this devotion, “Never live for the rare moments, they are surprises.  God will give us touches of inspiration when He sees we are not in danger of being led away by them.  We must never make our moments of inspiration our standard; our standard is our duty.” 

Personally, I’m going to remember this when God doesn’t respond the way I think He should or when I don’t feel as close to Him as I would desire.  Truly, I want to be surrendered to Him at all times, in the good times and in the bad, when He feels close and when He feels far away.  I want to walk by faith, not by sight.  How about you?