Friday, 15 June 2007

Meeting God Face-to-face

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and we started talking about meeting God face-to-face. I had never thought about it quite like I did the night. I realised that night, that I was not in a place where I wanted to be coming face-to-face with God. Unfortunately I didn't know how to get to a place where I would feel even remotely comfortable meeting with God on such intimate terms. In a way I still don't.

How do we get so that we can meet with God face-to-face? I am not entirely sure. But I know that if there are things that are stopping us from getting to that place where we can turn to God for the things we need and be comfortable (well as much as we can be anyway), then we need to deal with those things. But how can we deal with them if we don't want to face even those problems?

My friend said in that same conversation that we need to give those things that are stopping us from communing with God to God, but if we are uncomfortable meeting with God then how can we give them over to Him? How do we change our thought patterns to allow us to do those things even though we may be really uncomfortable about them? What is it the finally motivates us to get moving and actually do something about our problems?

I guess in my life I will be unable to meet with God on that intimate level until I can face the things in my life that I have been avoiding. As many or as few as they may be, sometimes the best thing is to face them head on and deal with them sooner rather than later cuz who knows what problems they may cause us in the future, for us, our husbands/wives or our kids. That is not a legacy I want to leave my kids.

1 comment:

Cat said...

K second time lucky!

Meeting God face-to-face is not something that came easily for me. In fact it came about as a result of me being at my lowest. As you know end of last year was a really tough time for me and I struggled hugely with many things. It got to the point where I was sitting at my desk one day trying to get through some of the workload - and not being able to see a way through - and simply sobbing. All I could say was 'Lord HELP, I can't do this, HELP'. And He did.

He calmed me down, poured His peace and love upon me and restored joy to my life. A couple of days and then again a couple of weeks later I got to the same point and the same thing happened. Its happened quite a few times since too. It wasn't that I got comfortable with God - rather it got way WAY too hard without letting Him in!

Since then each time its been easier to cry out for help and now I'm at the stage where I can daily cry out help - as well as praise Him and chat with Him and share with Him. Its almost as though it was like the tide coming in. Every time the waves crashed another watermark was set on the sand and each time the water got higher and sank a little deeper in and the effects would last longer.

I'm not saying this is how you or anyone else will get to the point of being able to be face to face with God and walk with Him as a tangible presence in your life but thats how it was for me.

By the by I don't think dealing with things is going to be the catalyst for being able to face Him - thats actually relying on yourself before you rely on God and that just does not work. Trusting and believing God will partner with you to deal with those things is the only way.

The catalyst for me was probably learning about the nature of God and His love for me. That enabled me, when I needed to, to cry out to Him. So I guess my advice would be to keep praying as you can, to ask God to join with you in trying to move through these things, but most of all to focus on learning about God and praising Him for all He has done. He is amazing and I know you will get there!!!

luv ya