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Recognizing God

Recognizing God

You will seek me and find me when you seek Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

As a Christian, it can be hard to recognize God. We are comfortable with believing in God and talking to Him, but we are not used to simply recognizing Him—even when He appears in our lives.

Think of the often-quoted story about Elijah in 1 Kings 19. In this dramatic story, it was not easy to recognize God. Elijah was afraid for his life, afraid that some of the followers of Baal would kill him. He was hiding in a cave on the side of a mountain. In his fear, he looked for God in fierce wind, in an earthquake and in fire. He was very afraid, his emotions were fierce and he was searching for a fierce God. But God came later, after the earthquake and after Elijah’s emotion. God came to Elijah in a whisper. Elijah did not need to endure fire, an earthquake and wind to discover God; God was with him all along. Elijah had done many miraculous things for God, but he had failed to recognize God’s presence in his tribulations. He feared for his life and did not expect God to be part of the conflict. God was in Elijah’s life, both in the miracles Elijah performed and in the suffering Elijah faced. And what it took for Elijah to realize that fact was a mere whisper.

I think perhaps it is so hard to recognize God because we are afraid of why the Creator of the universe would be in our individual lives. Think about it. If an all powerful, all knowing God is interested in you, are you not going to be a little nervous? It’s easy to thank God when we get what we want, when we heal from an injury or even if our favorite team wins the Super Bowl. It becomes harder to think that God is paying attention when a close relative dies. When we are able to perceive God in the good and the bad, the world becomes in some ways much less comfortable.

Think of Elijah; once he recognized God’s presence in all aspects of his life, Elijah had a lot of work to do. The same is true with us. Once we recognize that God is in our lives —  in our joys, love and accomplishments, as well as  our fears, challenges and disappointments — then we must begin to live as we ought to with God standing beside us.

God is in our lives. Recognizing God is risky business because when we do, God will call us to act on behalf of what is right. And when we do, God will continue to be there with us. God will continue to whisper to us as we stare out from the mouths of our sheltering caves. All we need to do is listen.

Dig Deeper:

1 Kings 19

Proverbs 8:17

Prayer:

Dear Lord, continue to speak to me. Allow me to quickly recognize Your voice and Your presence. Thank You for being with me in my life. 


RELEVANT’s “Deeper Walk” daily devotionals are presented by the LUMO Project, a visual translation of the four Gospels developed to engage people with scripture in a new way. You can watch the videos—which redefine the standard of visual biblical media—on YouTube, and find out more about LUMO’s mission at their website.

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