Read Graciously Uncertain part 1 here.
Recently, God has been bombarding me with truths about faith. For the past year, I have thought my spiritual life was really dry, because I haven’t been exceptionally inspired by God for a quite some time. But God has really convicted me of a huge error in my life and way of thinking; I have been living for those exceptional moments of inspiration when I can feel the hand of God…but that is totally wrong. Though I thought it was God I wanted, in reality, it has been these moments. So in truth, I haven’t been dry spiritually because of the lack of these “moments”, it has been due to that fact that I have wanted these “moments” more than I wanted God.
I know in a lot of recent posts, I have quoted or even brought an excerpt from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost For His Highest, but God has been blessing me so much through these readings, and I feel obliged to share them with you. The following is what Chambers states in regard to this issue:
We walk by faith, not by sight —2 Corinthians 5:7
For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.
I must thank God so much for dealing with me in regards to this issue. I have been limiting God so much by saying to myself , “I won’t do anything until God appears to me”. I truly need to walk by faith, and not by sight. The moments God appears to us are awesome, but they are blessing, and surprises, we cannot become dependent upon them, or else we are becoming dependent on sight.
Born in 1989, Colton (the author of LivngForJesus) is child of God, husband, soon-to-be father (baby on the way), the Outreach & Youth Director at Gateway Christian Church and a graphic/web designer. He has had a passion for ministry since his mid-teens....
This article got my attention I’ve seem to be doing the same thing. Wanting to feel something from God. Because it seemed like i had lack of emotions sometimes and kept praying that God would let me feel his presence again….But like you said we become dependent on it, when it does say we walk by faith and not by sight. So by faith I’m going to keep trusting and obeying him. And I know he’ll do it. I really do appreciate your words. God bless you.