The God Who Reveals

Well, here we are, stuck inside with the people we live with, or maybe that means being stuck inside alone, unsure of when this time might end. We call this Quarantine, but I think God calls it an invitation. In the midst of busy news articles, and sometimes overwhelming reports, God has somehow quieted my heart. This has not been an instant change, but a continual process of surrender to the one I recently discovered as a God of many mysteries. 

I just finished a book during this quarantine, which those of you who know me, know that’s a big accomplishment. I tend to read five books all at the same time, and never finish any of them. Maybe I should also add I have had this book for more than a couple years! But, I digress.

Sara Hagerty, in her book Unseen, writes about our hidden moments with God, and the effect they take on our souls. In one of her last chapters, she writes about how we tend to seek God in the ways that we already know him. If we understand he is a God of grace, we will come to him when we need reminding of that grace. If we know he is a God of love, we will seek him out to help us to love those around us. These are all beautiful attributes of our Father, but what about those parts of God that we don’t yet know or understand? If I don’t understand God as healer, will I go to him as healer or will I seek something inside myself for healing? If I don’t understand God as sovereign, will I go to him when I need to let go of control or will I try to grab a hold of everything I think I can control?

If you are like me, a lot of your hidden moments with God are spent seeking him in the attributes that you know of him. But, what about the attributes that have yet to take a hold of your heart? As Sara Hagerty writes in her book, “we seek the familiar in our Father, and we string all those attributes together and call them God. And when we pray from this place of familiarity, instead of being alert for how the truth of how He really is will likely upend our human understanding, we end up watching for confirmation of what we already know.” (Pg. 204)

When I seek God only in the ways that I already know him to be, how much of him am I missing out on? In Ephesians 3:17-19 Paul prays for a greater fullness in our experience of God. “[ I pray ] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Being rooted and grounded in love means we don’t have to force ourselves to see God in new ways, but we can trust that he will reveal himself to us in his own time, and our only job is to be present. 

We are not the only ones who have missed out on experiencing the fullness of God. Sarah Hagerty writes “The faith leaders in Jesus’ day were so familiar with and attached to their version of religion and their expectation of the Messiah that they put nails through the hands of the best thing that ever happened to them. Even Jesus’ closest companions were trapped in their ways of thinking and seeing things. He repeatedly gave them insights about the kingdom and what was to come, but they couldn’t see beyond the temporal—the visible and the familiar.” (Pg. 202)

Don’t read this and let your mind go to creating a new spiritual checklist, but instead see the hope and the beauty of our all-encompassing Father. He wants to reveal himself to us in new ways, and to be seen as greater in our lives. 

My prayer for us during this time of uncertainty as we figure out a “new norm” is that the mysteries of God would be revealed to our hearts. May the Father meet with us and reveal characteristics of himself that we don’t yet understand. The first way we can discover more of who the Father is, is to ask!

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Author

Chelsea Nobles is the Student Ministry Discipleship Coordinator at Peninsula Community Chapel