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Do You Have Your "Son"-Glasses On?
We’ve been talking about looking for God in all the little things that happens throughout our day, SEE Singing His Praise
Since I wrote the series about the Exodus in Tell of My Kingdom’s Glory, I’ve thought a lot about how Moses saw God.
Moses was the only prophet in the Bible Who saw God face to face.
What would it be like to see God?
Doesn’t your heart long for something more than this world?
—Especially after reading the last article Less Is More, where nothing here satisfies.
How do you live on that different realm where God is?
Hebrews 10:19 Having therefore brothers, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
When Christ died on the cross and rose again, God tore the veil in the temple that separated the people from the holy of holies where God “resided.”
By ripping the veil, God was telling us, “Come into My presence. You are welcome.”
But that is only for those who have come to the cross, repented of sin and become a child of God.
The prodigal son’s relationship was broken until he said, “I will arise and go to my father.”
The presence of God is central to why we return.
Not the place; not the things.
Often we “sell” Christianity for the heaven that awaits us.
Or for the blessings that we get.
And we do get heaven and blessings.
But we miss the MAIN POINT OF SALVATION.
What is the sole purpose of man?
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Salvation brings man back into communion with God, so he can enjoy Him.
Christians often think of forever as starting in heaven
It starts here. Now. when you become His child.
We are called into His presence.
As Christians, we are given His Spirit, entering into us to enable us.
Philippians 2:13 God Who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
What’s His good pleasure?
We’ve already written about how praising Him brings Him great joy.
We delight Him.
Praise brings more to praise.
When we express it outwardly, others are encouraged to see Him too.
That deepens our faith.
Faith, like a muscle, must be worked to grow.
So, by praising God, our faith grows.
But Paul speaks of “knowing Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him” Philippians 3:8-10.
Yes, we know God through reading and studying the Bible.
Yes, we hear His Spirit’s promptings when we should do something—
And we pray to talk to Him.
But how do we see Him?
He’s made the way.
He’s done His part.
Paul speaks of seeing in a mirror dimply, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. I Corinthians 13:12.
Augustine said, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”
Today’s Christianity would dismiss the idea of even seeing God, as emotional and not valid, why?
Because they’ve taken the Word of God and made it a logical, rationale appeal.
We do these things when we are Christians.
By emphasizing things that must be done to serve God, we’ve removed God’s presence.
Our Christian experience becomes rules and requirements.
We’ve ignored the Spirit that lives in us.
We can’t enjoy Him now.
But God wants more than just a duty-filled child.
He wants us to know Him.
By knowing Him, we learn to enjoy Him.
He delights in us.
That’s why He made us—to bring Him delight.
What hinders us from doing that completely?
We still carry a veil between us.
This veil shuts out His light, much like the Israelites wanted Moses to wear a veil over his face after he talked with God, because they couldn’t bear to look at him.
What’s this veil?
A.W. Tozer describes it:
It is the veil of our fleshly, fallen nature living on, unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated…They are not something we do, they are something we are….The self-sins are self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them….Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.
It’s not a coincidence that those qualities—self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-esteem, self-love—are traits the world tells us we must strengthen for a “balanced, whole life.”
It doesn’t take much training for us to love ourselves.
That “me-first” comes before we are two.
Yet those things hinder us from seeing God.
Tozer further states,
It (referring to self) can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction….There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free…. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgement. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal suffering in some measure like that through which our Savior passed when He suffered under Pontius Pilate…
Let us beware of tinkering with our inner life, hoping ourselves to rend the veil. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust. We must confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life and then reckon its crucified.
Much like the dragon suit of Eustace Scrubb in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a book in Chronicles of Narnia Series.
Eustace became a dragon by his selfness.
He couldn’t remove it.
Only Aslan, the Lion using his sharp claws, could rip off Eustace’s scaly dragon suit.
The deeper Aslan dug with his claws another layer of the suit was removed.
When Aslan was finished, Eustace felt raw, exposed, but free.
Eustace was changed from a selfish, self-absorbed spoiled brat to a giving, generous servant of the King.
Like Eustace, we can’t take our “self” off.
Only God can.
But it is painful.
All we do is submit. Even that is a struggle.
But when God does the work, we are changed.
Our focus becomes so absorbed with His presence that we can truly praise Him—thus fulfilling what He created us to do.
Enabling us to know Him.
It’s not an intellectual experience, coerced by our will.
Nor an emotional response, drummed up by our feelings.
But a spiritual event— that layer we cannot readily see.
Unless we have our “Son” glasses on.
When it happens, we know we've been with God.
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I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
Sonya Contreras
Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.
I read that line over and over again, "the chief aim of man is to glorify God . . ." And it struck me that if everything we do glorifies God, we need no rules. Which is the same conclusion you came to. We can get so wrapped up in rules that we lose God's presence. Praise Him, Praise Him. Thank you for this great reminder.