Have You Seen God Lately?
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
Did you know that our eyes are connected to our hearts? It’s true. Whatever your heart is set upon, your eyes will search out and find. Whatever your heart dismisses as meaningless will always be passed over by your gaze. For example — have you ever noticed when you buy a new car and start driving it around, you then start seeing it each time someone else is driving the same model? Why? Because it matters to you; and because your heart is set upon it, your eyes will seek it out.
Have you seen God lately? If not, the problem is not with your eyes…..it’s with your heart.
In another place, the Bible says, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled” (Titus 1:15). In other words, we do not see things as they are, we see things as we are. And if we are broken, then we will not see things right — even if they are right in front of us.
This is why we must turn to the Lord for cleansing whenever we are defiled by the awful things that happen in a fallen world. Otherwise, we will carry the defilement within our hearts and find ourselves unable to even receive the words of the Lord, much less believe them.
A corrupted and broken heart can distort the words of God in the same way that a defective radio receiver distorts a good signal. The signal from the station is perfectly clear but the message being heard in the living room is garbled and disturbing.
Suppose, for example, that an individual had a particularly cruel father who treated him with such harshness that it warped how he viewed himself and the world around him. One can imagine the difficulties that would arise within that person’s heart as he was introduced to the notion that God wanted to be his “Father!” “God wants to be my Father?” he might ask, inwardly thinking: “He wants to beat me and belittle me?!”
Mistreated sons and daughters unwittingly project onto God the awful failures of their own earthly fathers. Aloof, absent, and angry men have done so much to give God a bad name through their distorted examples of fatherhood. As a result, the world is filled with broken children who are in desperate need of a true revelation of the Father heart of God.
Perhaps you are one of them? Jesus will heal you, and make you whole if you but ask Him — and you will see God!
I challenge you to surf the internet, find others who had a difficult childhood, but who are now saved, who are now children of God. Ask of them the difference between their earthly father and their Heavenly Father? I promise you that the answer will be that our Heavenly Father is not only not cruel, but that He is loving and desires the very best for us. However, do not buy into this new age movement that all God wants is for you to be happy. Those who preach and teach this unbiblical doctrine have it all wrong, except the first letter. God is not as concerned with our happiness as He is with our “HOLINESS”. You will find out that as a child of God, when living a holy life, we are then pleasing God, which makes Him happy, and will, in turn, bring us something much more valuable than happiness. It is when we are in the center of God’s will that we will have joy.
Therefore I challenge you, don’t blame your childhood, be different than those who may have abused you, and allow God to take your bad past and use it for good, that you may be able by the grace of God to help those going through similar things as you once did.