The God They Gave You

In our efforts to open our hearts, minds and spirits to God in our lives, one of the major obstacles is the image of God we have unknowingly created. Thomas Keating says, The spiritual journey has a great difficulty in getting off to a good start if we are carrying a load of unexamined and unquestioned negative attitudes toward God.[i]

No one is immune. We each create an image of God out of our childish experiences and also through the way we saw our authority figures in our lives. That is not God. That is the God they gave you. Most often the spiritual journey is about breaking away from that God into ever broadening experiences.

Jesus taught us to see God just as we see Him. He gives us a great tool and spiritual exercise that will aid us on our spiritual journey of knowing God for who He really is. Matthew 6:6,9 are parts of Jesus’ teaching about prayer, But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you….Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Praying is the spiritual discipline that leads you to a more authentic experience of God. You may learn how to pray by praying with others, but the best kind of praying happens behind closed doors. All that matters then is your heart and your God. God is in the secret place, God is in secret. Never pray as if you know what God thinks or feels. Pray to the God who is in secret. He is the God you want to know. He is the God who is real and mysterious and majestic and sovereign. He is more than your mind can conceive. But if you need to conceive Him, think of Him like your Father. Think of Him like a Father unlike the best father on earth. Think of Him as a Father who will reward what happens in secret.

Jesus gave us a great tool to increase our experience of God as He really is when He taught us to pray to Our Father. Just those two words are packed with wonder about the God who is our Father. He is a Father who is in heaven. He is hallowed. His name is above all names.

The God they gave me is so far from the God I am coming to know. Though I am confident of the God I know, I know for sure that the God I know is not who God is. He is above my own knowledge and experience. He asks more of me than I could ever imagine. He wants me to give Him my whole heart and that is when I begin to understand Him.

Your spiritual journey of knowing God should make you more aware that He is more wonderful than you previously imagined and far beyond the goodness you could attribute to Him.

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years? Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me. For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side. I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind. When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are cr...

The Effects of the Holy Spirit

The Effects of the Holy Spirit Can you imagine that the very Spirit of God is given to humans who believe in God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection? Just thinking about the Holy Spirit makes me realize that I can do better. I am not left to my own resources when it comes to praying, having faith, obeying God, doing what He asks me to do. No one understands the depth of sin’s effect on a soul better than God. Every action He takes has been to reduce the effect of evil that was unleashed into our world when sin was merged into His perfect universe. We never saw it coming. Even Adam and Eve did not see what hit them. God has counteracted with the effect of faith after sin by enabling sinners to be affected by His ho...

Holy Saturday

Nothing is written about the events of Holy Saturday except Luke 23:56, “they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” These few words speak volumes about our life with Christ. What was it like for these ladies to rest on the Sabbath? They had watched carefully, they knew how quickly Jesus’ body was laid in the grave. The men had brought spices and linens, but they had little time to properly anoint this most precious of all bodies. As the women watched carefully, they made mental note of the supplies that would be necessary to complete this sacred act of burial as it should be. They spent the last few hours before sunset to prepare the spices for this holy act of reverence. The Sabbath signaled the time for rest. I’m sure they didn’t feel like resting, but by complying out of obedience they were probably served by its benefits. Their minds racing from the horror they had just witnessed, at best they could allow their bodies to rest and ...

AnonymousOctober 14, 2011 at 5:17 AM
My extraordinary parents did me the great favor of introducing me to God and they did a pretty good job of it. I was also lucky enough to have an earthly father whose primary goal was to emulate his Father in heaven. So, yes, as I have matured in my faith, gaining personal knowledge of the Bible and personal experience with my Saviour, I have grown in my understanding - but what a great foundation I got from Ruth and George.

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