Have you learned to see God?

There is a tendency among some to spiritualize everything. Let an oddly-shaped cloud that resembles an angel form in the sky and people panic that the world is about to end! Sometimes we overdo it. But even so, I think it’s also true that we very often miss seeing God even when He makes Himself obvious.

Personally, I think God is far more constantly and deeply involved in our lives than we allow ourselves to be aware of. The Bible tells us God is sincerely interested in the smallest details of our lives …

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives,” Psalm 37:23.

So do you see God in the midst of the little — or big — things in your life? Sometimes we have to learn to tune out all the things of the world so that we can see God right there with us. Kerry Bauman tells a story from his childhood that captures how we miss seeing what (or Who) is right in front of us …

As a boy I used to go hunting rabbits with my uncle. He had the uncanny ability to see them sitting still in all kinds of places and with all sorts of groundcover. On many of those occasions he would say to me, “Kerry — there is a rabbit sitting about five feet in front of me. Come over here.” I‘d walk over and he’d ask, “Do you see it?”

I would sit and stare trying to find the rabbit. Most of the time, I never saw it even though, from my uncle’s point of view, it was obvious. He would say to me things like, “It’s right there in front of you. If you take three steps you’re going to be standing next to it.” Still, it wasn’t until I actually got so close to the rabbit that it jumped from its little bed that I would finally see the animal. What was so clear to my uncle’s trained eye was obscured to me.

When it comes to seeing God in our lives, we’re all too often like the boy who doesn’t see the rabbit in front of him. It isn’t that the boy couldn’t see the rabbit, it’s that he didn’t. He had to learn to see what was right in front of him, and we need to learn to see God in our lives.

How do we do that? The answer is a common one, one which you’ve likely heard many times. Seeing God requires spending time in the Bible where God reveals Himself to us, in prayer talking to Him, and learning to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit who lives in you (and who reveals Christ to us).

If you never learn to have a keen eye for what God is doing in your life, you’ll greatly lack depth of gratitude and affection for the one who deserves it most from you. Learn to see God better in your life and you’ll experience a heightened sense of joy, a deeper sense of humility, and a greater motivation for praise and thanksgiving.

It’s important to see God! Do you?

Scotty