I’m amazed every week by what God lays on my guest’s hearts. This particular post really humbled me. I think so highly of Amy Wright. She is a woman who loves God and really lives it out. I think you’ll be moved by a glimpse into her heart and what God has shown her.
As I prayed about what God might have for me to share, I was a little surprised when He stirred my heart to something that started a few years ago–something so deeply personal to me, so near and dear to my heart. My prayer is that you will blessed as you read a piece of my heart.
I am the mother of three handsome boys. Reece is five, Abel is three and Wyatt is about to turn one. My husband of 10 and half years, Devin, is my high school sweetheart and the rock of our family.
I have a piece that I work on now and again that has become a precious collection of ways God has revealed Himself and His great truth to me through the years. I have entitled it, “Who is God, Anyway?”. Something that Bobi Ann doesn’t know is that she has actually contributed to this work. In fact, you might say that her message helped propel the very beginnings of this effort. What I am going to share with you today is actually an excerpt from chapter one of my collection…
“I recently saw a social networking post that was a photograph of a handwritten page simply entitled “My Father…”. The single notebook page was a small list of what and who the Father was to this individual.
“My Father loves me, cares for me, forgives me, is compassionate”
and so on and so forth with a single scripture reference attached to each quality or characteristic of the Father. It was beautiful. This encouraged me to start my own list and to praise the Lord for the many ways in which I have been blessed to come to know and experience my Abba Father. I found it to be similar to a “Spiritual Marker” list like Henry Blackaby encourages everyone to compose in Experiencing God.
Spiritual markers are times in your life where you knew that the Father was speaking to you, guiding you, teaching you, or revealing himself to you in some way. Documenting spiritual markers is a profoundly powerful way to remember how God has worked in your life.
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Around the same time that I began compiling this list of Godly characteristics I had come to know, I attended a women’s conference at my church. The speaker, Bobi Ann Allen, spoke about having satisfaction in Christ. She read from and referenced John chapter 4, the story of the “Woman at the Well.” She asked the ladies in attendance what it was they were searching and striving for that they felt would satisfy them.
“If I could just get “X” I would be satisfied.” Insert any given number of things into this “X” such as the right man, the right job, car, house, children, etc. In John Chapter 4, verse 10, Jesus says,
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
It is God alone who can satisfy our inner “thirst”, not any material possession or person of this world? How then, can someone come to know and experience Christ in this way and thereby receive this “living water”?
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How have I come to know Christ? How can I be and stay satisfied in my Lord?
This brings me back to the list from the social network. Who is God? I know that a vast amount of conclusive, theological, literary masterpieces on the topic, filled with sound biblical knowledge on God:
- The sovereign creator of the universe;
- Jesus, the son of God, who came and lived a sinless life in the flesh
- The spotless Lamb who was crucified for all creation’s sin that if we believe in Him we may have eternal life; and
- The Holy Spirit who is our Wonderful Counselor and guides and directs our paths
- The many roles that all the members of the Holy Trinity play in existence past, present, and future.
All of this doctrinal truth is gravely important and essential to understanding what Christianity is about, who God is physically, and why we serve Him. However, I want to take some time to ponder and focus on the basic reality that Christianity is about one foundational thing: a real, personal, intimate relationship with the Creator. Who is God to me? Who is God to a single individual? How can I, and have I, experience God?”
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If you have ever journaled about times in your life that God has spoken to or revealed Himself to you personally, you will understand when I tell you that looking back through my past writing, evokes so much emotion in my spirit as I recall the passion that God gave me at 2 am the night after that ladies conference when I sat for hours and began to write and recall all the intimate ways that I have come to experience God.
One can study, learn and becoming vastly knowledgeable about the Bible and theology, but as 1 Corinthians 13 tells us, without love, it is nothing. God is a loving Father that truly wants an intimate relationship with His children. It is in His loving embrace that we really come to know who He is.
There is nothing sweeter than the warm embrace of Jesus and His blessing of revelation when He allows us to see another characteristic of His love for us. He is my Savior, He is merciful, He is my joy and peace, my healer and the great physician, my standard, my Abba Father.
Question: Who is God to you? I want to challenge you to make your own intimate list of the ways that you have personally experienced God. Pray for God to refresh your memory and to reveal Himself in new ways. I pray you will be blessed beyond measure as you count the ways in which God has poured out His amazing love on you.
Photo: I am the mother of three handsome boys. Reece is five, Abel is three and Wyatt is about to turn one. My husband of 10 and half years, Devin, is my high school sweetheart and the rock of our family.
