Developing a feel for God

Posted byoakhillcrossvillePosted inUncategorized
Good morning everyone,
 
Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”
 
Our Bible verse for today: “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105 (CSB)
 
Our thought for today: “Developing a feel for God”
 
I love Psalm 119. It’s the longest chapter in the Bible (176 verses), and it’s all about the Bible. Yes, the longest chapter in the Bible is all about the Bible. For 176 verses the writer speaks about the value of God’s Word and his love for it. He describes how the Bible teaches him about God, fills his heart with hope and joy, answers his questions, and shows him how to live. Verse 105 says that the Word of God is like a lamp that lights his path, showing him the way so he doesn’t get lost on his journey through this dark world.
 
So, how exactly does the Bible serve as a lamp that lights up our path and shows us the way forward? In what way does it answer our questions, and how exactly do we hear God speaking to us through His written word? God accomplishes that in multiple ways and we will take the next few days to consider some of them.
 
First of all, the Bible is a story. It’s a narrative which describes God’s interaction with the human race over the course of history. So, when we read the story of God from start to finish (Genesis to Revelation), we come to know God and to understand Him better. On the pages of the Bible we see how He has interacted with others down through the ages, and that helps us to better understand how He interacts with us.
 
One thing this does for us is it gives us “a feel” for God. This is subtle and easily missed or misunderstood, so we need to be careful with this, but as we come to know and understand God better, we can just feel if something is of God or not. You get to the point where you’re familiar enough with God and His ways, because you’ve spent so much time immersed in His story, that you can just sense if a leading is consistent with the ways He typically interacts with His people or not.
 
Again, this is subtle and it takes spiritual maturity to get this right. Therefore, we don’t rely just on this feeling. Instead, we confirm it by means of other ways in which God speaks to us. But this feel for God is an important and helpful indicator, and it’s developed over time as you become more familiar with God. One way you become familiar with God is by spending lots of time immersed in His story.
 
We’ll continue thinking about this tomorrow. For now, I encourage you to spend some time this morning reading your Bible.  
 
God bless,
Pastor Jim  
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