Do you ever feel that you need the obvious pointed out to you? Sometimes pointing out the obvious can be so profound because when we don’t talk about the obvious things (you know, because they are obvious) we become numb to them and they lose meaning. The obvious things in life and in our faith are not any less important because they are obvious. Sometimes it’s nice to let the obvious hit you over the head so that you can experience that Truth in a fresh way. After all, no Christian wants to become numb to what has become obvious to us after being a Christian for years: Jesus died for us, loves us, is always with us etc. Over the summer I met with a friend who told me something hilariously obvious. She said: “Jesus is invisible. It’s important that we continue to meet together as the church so that we can help each other follow God and keep the faith in a God that we can’t see.” Jesus is invisible. Is that factual? Yup. Look around! He is everywhere and yet He is, in fact, invisible. I mean, when He came to earth He was not invisible – He was human. But now, He is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven and His Spirit is within us. We cannot physically see Him; therefore, invisible. I don’t know why I felt the needed to prove that to you . . . but in case you wanted to dwell on the obvious a little longer – there you have it. For some reason when my friend said those words to me, it hit me like a ton of bricks. That moment that Jesus had with His disciples after the resurrection where He appeared in the upper room, stood across from them and said “look at my scars” . . . this is not something that we, his disciples today, have ever experienced. After all, we walk by faith and not by sight. I know, sorry to point out the obvious yet again, but let that sink in again for a moment . . . We walk by faith and not by sight.
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the LORD!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My LORD and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:24-29
Jesus knew that there would be many generations after the disciples that would believe in and follow Him because of the good news . . . that they would not see Him and yet they would still believe in Him. We do not need to see to believe. In the same way, we don’t need to continue to hear from God to believe in and follow Him either. We need to hear the Holy Spirit speak in order for the revelation of the Gospel to be revealed to us, but we don’t NEED to hear from God over and above what He has already revealed in and through Scripture. We want to hear from Him (and this is totally something we should want!), but we must be careful to distinguish what we think we need from what we actually need from God. When we start to think we need things we don’t, we begin to expect them from God. If He doesn’t provide in that way, then we are disappointed in Him and this leads to a rift in our relationship.
WHAT WE THINK WE NEED VS. WHAT WE ACTUALLY NEED
A few years ago I was hearing from God a lot. Seriously, every morning I would get up to read my Bible and I would experience His presence in such a tangible way. It was awesome! Whenever anyone would ask me what the best part of my day was I would truly respond: “My hour with Jesus this morning.” And every day, when my alarm would go off at 6:30 am I would seriously jump out of bed, excited to be with Jesus. Then, that feeling went away. I didn’t hear from Him quite like before. I mean, I still heard from Him, but not every single morning. It wasn’t like before where I felt like Holy Spirit was lighting my heart with fire and pouring love and encouragement out on me every single day. Getting out of bed became a little harder because it felt like I had to keep coming to Him without getting what I was hoping for in return. It became discouraging. I kept searching to find what I was doing wrong. I worked through unforgiveness, strongholds, sin patterns, identity issues – the whole shebang. Trust me when I say I am glad I worked through all of those things with Jesus, but I was frustrated because I still could not experience Him as I had before. I finally took an opportunity to share this frustration with some friends of mine. My one friend responded: “maybe this is a new season in your relationship with God and this is what you actually need to grow closer to Him and to love Him and experience Him.” And that’s when it hit me – I was still in relationship with God, our relationship was just not looking the way that I wanted or thought that I needed. After all, God know best. We need to trust Him in all things – including our relationship with Him. If we are truly seeking Him, we need to let Him do the leading.
It’s so easy to want to see to believe. But, just as Thomas had to do, we have to shed our need to have God on our terms. Seeing to believe seems much easier and to make more sense. But God knows what we need more than we do. He knows that we don’t need to physically see Him to have faith . . . nor do we need to consistently hear Him and feel His presence in big, youth conference or last night of summer camp, kinds of ways. Do you trust that He, your creator, knows how to have relationship with you?
WHEN THE ISRAELITES’ RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD WAS NOT WHAT THEY EXPECTED
I guarantee that the Israelites went through many times over the years where they didn’t experience God in a way that they wanted. The whole ‘believing and not seeing’ thing was hard for them, especially when all the other nations had physical statues of their gods that they could see when they worshipped. One of the most difficult times, in my opinion, would have been the period of ‘silence’ between Malachi and Matthew: a bit of a spiritual drought for some and an ‘in between’ period. This was a time of waiting for the Messiah . . . waiting for all that had been spoken through the prophets to come to life. Four to five generations passed before the angel appeared to Zechariah to share the good news of the coming of the savior. In that time, in the midst of that silence, many Jews began to grow hard hearts and fall away from their relationship with God (enter: Pharisees). However, there was a remnant of faithful, obedient people who waited on the Lord: Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Anna, and Simeon to name a few. After all this time they waited in faith, cherishing the promises of God written in the Torah and on their hearts, trusting Him to come through and being obedient and seeking Him in the waiting. Were there discouraging days? I am sure of it! But they kept pressing in to God and following His ways. And guess what? Having relationship with God on His terms and waiting on Him was worth it.
I always assumed that the four hundred years of silence was called that because God didn’t speak at all. But, in those four hundred years God was still actively answering prayers, performing miracles, and having relationship with His people – after all, He always does these things. He didn’t check out! In those four hundred years God didn’t do what He had done for a long time . . . there were no prophets and nothing was being added to scripture – no more prophecies being shared to the Israelites as a whole because the Words that He had given in Scripture were all they needed up until that point. Their relationship with God looked different in that time, but even though God had changed the way that He was interacting with them, He had not changed. He still loved them, pursued them and promised to save them. It just looked different than it had before, but the ways that He was interacting with the generations in those four hundred years were exactly what they needed to prepare their hearts for the coming Messiah.
HOPE IN PERSEVERANCE
Does your relationship with God look different today than it did five years ago? Fifty years ago? Five minutes ago? Maybe in this season God is interacting with you in a very tangible, youth conference, last night of camp way. Awesome! Maybe, you are in the midst of a difficult time and God is comforting you in the thick of the valley experience. Or, maybe, you haven’t heard from God in awhile and it feels totally discouraging. There is no shame in any of those answers. As Christians we often times desire the mountain top experience as our daily with God. But, a lot of the time, that’s not how our relationship with Him looks. If the apostle Paul was to describe his ideal relationship with God, I am sure it wouldn’t consist of meeting with Jesus in jail or in watching all of his friends persecuted and executed. But, He trusted God in all of that, threw his ideals out the window (literally, he used to be a Pharisee!), and he leaned into God. And, like always, God’s way is the best way.
So, when your relationship with God is not looking the way you had hoped, what can you do?
First, you can continue to trust in His Word. Just because you aren’t experiencing God in loud, youth conference ways, doesn’t mean His Words are any less true. Just like He remains unchanged, so do His words. That means that if you’re a Christian and have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, these words will always apply to you, no matter how you feel. You are still loved, saved, a son or daughter of the King, provided for, and precious to Him. None of that changes because the relationship looks different and it is important that you continue to believe and trust these promises . . . especially when your relationship with God doesn’t look like you thought.
“The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:8
Second, no matter how you feel, you must keep leaning into God and spending time with Him. There are going to be tons of days where, especially when you’re not on the relational mountain top of faith, where you don’t feel like spending time with God. Honestly, this was me just yesterday. I was tired after working eleven hours and I would have rather scrolled through Instagram, watched TV or read a book. But, just as I sat down with my book to read, I looked up and saw my Bible sitting on the table. I didn’t feel like it, but I did it because I reminded myself that even if my relationship with Him does not look the way I expected in this difficult season of isolation and discouragement, it’s still a relationship. And that requires me pouring in and making space for Him to pour into me too. I was glad I made the decision yesterday to choose to spend time with God. Today is a new day, and now I have to choose to spend that time with Him all over again today.
“‘Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord . . .”
Jeremiah 29:12-14
Which expectations in your relationship with God are real needs that He promises to fill and which are based on what you want? After reading this have you realized that you expect God to have relationship with you on your terms rather than trusting and leaning into Him on His terms? Honestly, if you’ve come to the realization that this is you, that is a great first step. Now that you know better you can choose to do better. But, it’s hard to do better when you don’t know better. When you persevere through whatever season you are in, when you keep trusting God and His words and when you continue to spend time with Him there is hope and you will be blessed. Trust that He knows what’s best for you, He loves spending time with you and He has your best interest in mind.
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”
Romans 8:28
Written by: Justine Joy
Refined Joy 