Experiencing God’s Word & Apple Scramble

Name: Apple Scramble
Prep time: 2 min
Cook time: 2 min
Yield: 1 Apple Scramble
Ingredients: 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats; 2 egg whites; 1/2 medium apple; 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon syrup or honey; 1 tablespoon chopped nuts; non-stick cooking spray

Psalm 119:105 (erv)

Your word is like a lamp that guides my steps, a light that shows the path I should take.

Read

When I’m studying scripture, I’m often guilty of expecting God to do a magic trick right before my eyes. I skim over a lot of really valuable passages because words don’t pop off the page, followed by a flash of fire and a cloud of smoke. I’m embarrassed to admit that most days, I open the Bible, focusing on my own feelings. I want to feel something, and when I don’t, I usually decide that God isn’t in the mood to speak to me that day. Have you ever experienced a time when you opened the Bible and the words seemed to jump off the page at you? YES. Me too. In fact, it started to become all I was looking for when I opened the Word, and I felt alone and clueless when that didn’t happen with the turn of each page.

I’ve gone on like that for quite some time; and each time it happened, I felt a little more empty. Where was God? Why wasn’t He showing up? I was there. I was doing my thing. I set aside my “Jesus time”, I closed the distractions, and I was skimming the pages for His knowledge and wisdom. So why wasn’t He showing up to meet me? It wasn’t until something challenged my thinking that my thoughts began to change on this: Last year, I decided to host a virtual book club for a bunch of ladies I’d connected with Instagram, thinking that it would be a great way to take what I had been learning and share it. It was, in fact, a great way to share, but it was an even better way to learn, which I didn’t see coming. I knew I wanted to focus on a devotional or faith-based book of some sort, so I started reading through a few that I had in mind.

Among those books was Wild & Free – if you haven’t read it, I highly suggest it. It’s full of some incredible truths and eye-opening ideas; one of which is what put the wheels in motion for this post and the thoughts behind it. In the pages of this book are where I first learned about the idea that worshipping God, connecting with God, and even being a Christian, aren’t about me – they’re about Him. Just like me, the author talks about how she expected the “warm and fuzzy God feels”, and when they didn’t come, her disappointment crept in.

She goes on to say that God isn’t out for our joy – He’s out for His glory. In other words, God isn’t a performer that’s at our beck and call. In hindsight, it sounds so entitled that I thought the Creator of the universe was simply waiting around for my designated quiet time so that He could make me feel good. In reality, He does make me feel good; because of who He is, not because of what He does/when He does something – or if He does that something at all.

Before I read that, everything about God was conditional and circumstantial for me. If He answered my prayers, He was good. And if He didn’t, well…. He must not be so good. Now, what I see is different. However, I feel like I need to say that just because I see things differently doesn’t necessarily make them easier. I still want my way, when I want it. I’m human. I’m self-absorbed and the most important thing on my mind is typically me. I have to take a lot of big, scary steps back in faith to give God the glory and spotlight He deserves (not that I think I’m capable of stealing the spotlight from God… I’m not that self-absorbed). But the thing that’s keeping me from experiencing and celebrating all that God is, is me.

So, I decided to dig deeper – even when I wanted to pull back. Instead of making my prayer time about me, I’ve started making it about God. I used to sit down and read scripture to see how it applied to me and how it could make my life better. Now, I read scripture to learn more about God, and that does make my life better. He’s the main character, I’m just the lucky girl who’s been created to worship Him. When I study the Bible this way, it’s never boring and it always applies, because the whole book is about Him. And when we learn more about our Creator, we ultimately learn more about ourselves. When we hear God’s promises, we begin to understand our position. When we get a glimpse at His love, we get to live differently.

God’s desire for us is to enter into a relationship with Him, to worship Him, and to serve Him. In order to do those things, we must really know Him first. In every relationship, we make the choice to learn about the other person. If we don’t, that relationship usually doesn’t flourish and grow. He’s done His part in knowing us, after all, He created us. The best part is that He still wants to hear about us from us; from our perspective because we want to share our lives with Him. But it can’t be a one way street. We have to stop looking to God for the answer and start looking at Him as THE answer.

Write

Do you approach God from the perspective of your feelings, or His glory? Understand that it’s totally normal (we’re all humans!), but it does put a damper on how we experience God. How can you approach the Lord from a different perspective moving forward?