To Be Gripped by the Eternal Vision of God

I was going through my journal entries and felt encouraged by some of the words God had given me in the past and just thought I'd post them up to remind my silly heart and silly soul of just how much God loves me:

1. The extent to which people can make me experience true happiness is dependent on the depth of my relationship with God, the depth of my satisfaction with Him.

2. This is a paraphrase of Phil 3:12, but I can't seem to find which version it was taken from: "I have not apprehended yet but I am gripped by the eternal vision of God." This ties in with something beautiful that Jason Upton once said, "If you'll let go of the certainty of knowing and just hang on to the wanting [to be around Jesus], then you're on the right track."

I want to be so gripped by the eternal vision of God that everything else that is peripheral gets swept aside, that it reframes the way I see EVERYTHING in life - so that even as I slowly apprehend things, slowly get bits of my life-picture dropped into my hands as I walk along with God, I will not lose focus when I come across threads and pieces that may not seem to fit into my own vision of my life-picture, but add so much more colour and texture and depth and nuances to it.

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to stop me from asking "why"s. Right now the biggest why in my head is, "Why isn't it enough for me to know that I'm enough for You and You alone?" Why do I keep wandering off the path searching for water and food that will never satisfy me? Why is my heart so restless?

3. Father God, I don't just want You to walk with me, but I want to be able to bear witness to the way in which Your presence changes the lives of people, the hearts of people, situations and circumstances around us. I want to make VISIBLE the invisible reality of who You are, bring Your power and love to the people who are hungry for You, who have never encountered You before.

I want to be worthy of hearing Your words, and to hear Your words worthily.

4. "Better to have little, with fear of the Lord,

than to have great treasure and inner turmoil." - Proverbs 15:16

The juxtaposition of these two lines shows that the fear of the Lord is also marked by inner peace. It is not just something that produces reverence and awe, but God's fear is accompanied by a calmness of spirit - of our spirits being able to come to a place/position of rest in Him.

5. "Why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks?" - 1 Cor 10:29

6. The only thing that should never be shaken is the truth of God's power and presence in my life. God WILL shake everything else in my life until I learn to align my heart with His.

7. Our godliness is useless and off-putting if it's merely a "form of godliness", one that is without brokenness, without authenticity.

8. I now understand in greater measure the value of brokenness, of pain, of failures. If we ask and get only success all the time, how can we understand and have compassion for the hurts of others? How can I give someone something real that they can hold on to? If I speak only of happiness and success all the time, am I not leading others to deify these things? To chase after comfort without a true knowledge of God?

9. The seen proceeds from the unseen. And the little parts that make up my seen life must be built from unseen aspects working together to realise them - my faith, my trust, my hope, my love, let them all be rooted and grounded in You.

10. Help me to see in each obstacle that comes my way, the joy that awaits me, the growth that will strengthen me, the knowledge of You that will fill me, the peace that will cover me.