I remember a pastor sharing a story about a church camp he attended once. A group of leaders were talking about the greatest experience they had had with God. One person spoke about the camp the previous year, another about a missions trip he went on a few years before. Everyone had a story of how God had moved in their life. And then they got to this one kid, who said, “I want my greatest experience with God to never be more than 10 days away.”
That thought is truly amazing. Can you imagine having an experience with God every 10 days? Scratch that, your GREATEST experience with God never being more than 10 days away? I hate to admit it, but I can’t. I mean, I wish and hope for it, but I can’t actually wrap my mind around that. I mean, I’ve seen God do some amazing things. I just have a hard time thinking that God can top the time gold dust fell, the tornado split around our camp ground and left us untouched, or when the woman in Peru’s tumor fell off. And the thing is, while I know He is able to do above and beyond all that I can ask, think, dream, or imagine, I don’t think He will while I continue thinking like this, limiting Him.
You see, when I don’t give God the glory for all that He does, when I don’t put my trust in Him to take care of the cares of this world, I limit Him. When I stop recognizing all that He is and all that He’s done, I loose. When I keep Him from my life, I’m left in charge. And what a horrifying thought that is.
Smith Wigglesworth was said to never spend more than 10 minutes at a time talking to God, but never went more than 10 minutes without talking to God. Do you know how real God must have been to Him? If I’m honest, I forget about my family and friends if I’m busy, like DAILY. I am not a person who chats with them to just “see what’s up.” In a month, I use about 45 minutes on my cell phone. And most of those are to my work. I am not a chatter. But I know that if I talked to my family and friends every 10 minutes? It would be hard to forget them. I would know them inside and out, and they would know me. Now can you imagine what it would be like to do that with God! I mean, I know that every time I do let God in, I’m left flabbergasted. There has yet to be a time when I truly gave a situation to Him that He hasn’t moved. And the thing about when God moves in your life? It’s not small. It may look small on the outside, to those not experiencing it. But to me? To the person it’s happening to? It’s everything. It’s like a tornado. From far away, it can look like just some clouds, or feel like a light wind. But up close, in the midst of it all, it’s a life changing event that effects everything. And at first, like a tornado, it might feel like everything will be in shambles, that the change, the uncertainty, the loss of control will destroy you; but then, you see what is really taking place. The mess starts to take shape into something beyond what you could hope or dream of, because that’s the kind of God we serve. One who is here to bless and keep us. To steal a line from Lifehouse, how could I stand with a God like this and NOT be moved by Him? Can you just imagine living in that?!
The truth is, every moment of my life is a great experience with God, if I choose to see Him working in that moment, if I let Him in. And that’s all up too me.
Thank you so much for reading. I know it’s been a while, but like I’ve said before, I never want to write if I don’t actually have something to say. But fortunately, I think my words have returned to me. So thank you for sticking around through this drought!
