Did You See That?

When the Lord saw that He had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. Exodus 3:4

To what lengths will you go to catch someone’s attention? Whistle? Yell? Wave? Jump up and down? Start a fire? Use a designer license plate, create a unique e-mail name? Dress in strange clothes? Hire a skywriter? Rent a billboard? Do something daring and out-of-the-ordinary? Throughout the ages, people have gone to great lengths to be heard, seen, believed, recognized, etc., by someone else or to make a point.

Interestingly, God does the same thing. Throughout our lives, God’s at work revealing Himself, to catch our attention, so we can join Him in fulfilling the purpose for which He created us. And we need to join Him, because He alone has a full handle on what He had in mind in fashioning each of us, and He alone is the source and resource for everything we need to be successful in our efforts and fulfill His design.

While in Moses’ case in the Scripture above, God chose a dramatic revelation, appearing in blazing fire in a bush without burning the bush, He’s no less industrious in our lives, using myriad ways to get our attention … some subtle, and some not so.

He sets us in situations where, no matter who or what we try to seek for help, He’s really the ultimate source for what we need. But, sadly, we often don’t hear Him speaking in the situation.

He often withholds complete understanding of our circumstances – from us and everyone else -- so again, we have to trust Him to see us through, because He’s the only One with light to shed on the circumstances and who gives light in the darkness. But, sadly, we often choose to wander about aimlessly, in the dark, without asking for His direction and wisdom.

He shapes us in ways – through both abilities and desires as well as disabilities and limitations -- so that no matter how talented or successful we become, we’ll never be able to fully enjoy or appreciate, become or achieve all we want and dream of apart from His grace, His power flowing through us, His purpose. So, if we want to rise above the frustration or the emptiness that even success can bring, and escape becoming perverted or misshapen by it into a self-centered, egotistical blowhard, which can lead us on a downward spiral, we need to acknowledge and run to Him. But, sadly, we credit ourselves and continue limping along.

He pours out His love in ways we sometimes recognize as wonderful and that make us happy and feel blessed, as well as in ways we don’t recognize and that, for the moment, make us sorrowful or feel forgotten or abandoned. Both are His gifts, but, in either case, more often than not, we fail to credit or recognize Him, simply because we’re ignorant of who He is and how He works. We have, as Jesus put it, “eyes that see without seeing and ears that hear without hearing.” But His desire is that both will cause us to look up to Him. But, sadly, we often choose to stay deaf and blind.

He speaks to us of His heart in a still, small voice, through a word spoken, an act seen, an inner nudge felt, a righteous, just or merciful thought that comes up again and again in our minds, His peace poured out when the world thinks we should be going crazy.

Although, sometimes, like Moses, or like the Apostle Paul whom God struck temporarily blind on the Damascus Road, He has to practically scream to get our attention. The revered Christian apologist and writer, C. S. Lewis, spoke of another method God often uses when we’re not hearing Him. He said “Pain is God’s megaphone to a deaf world.” When we can’t hear Him any other way, God can and does use pain to bring us to a standstill, get our attention and move us in ways we’d otherwise not have gone.

Why? Because He made you with purpose. You’re His creation, and He wants a relationship with you. There are things He made you to do, be, influence, care for, touch, in His Name and for the good of people and the world, so they, too, can hear, see and recognize Him. He wants you to join Him, as He made you to do, thwarting Satan’s schemes and plans and redeeming the evil he causes.

No matter what you’re going through today, ask God to give you ears to hear and eyes to see so you recognize Him as He reveals Himself and His love for you today. And, as He does, answer like Moses did, “Here I am.” God has plans for you … plans “for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

• Email This Page to a Friend
• Print this Page