From Wilderness to Wonders by Katherine Ruonala

Author:Katherine Ruonala
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charisma Media
Published: 2015-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

EXPERIENCING MERCY OVER THE MESS

WHEN I WAS a teenager, I really wanted to make God happy, so I determined that I was going to pray for an hour every day. Surely that would be a deeply spiritual activity that would please God—my own “hour of power.” He can accomplish a lot through an hour of intense praying. So I set about to do that, and after about five minutes, I found myself looking at my watch. I had said all I could think to say. The earth hadn’t shaken, and the heavens hadn’t moved. What next?

My experience in prayer raised some questions and inspired discussions about all the different ways we can encounter God. I love to pray, and now it is a joy rather than a chore. But do we encounter Him only in intense spiritual activities, or does He speak and move in all the other times of our lives too? Of course the answer is that He speaks in a myriad of ways. We encounter Him by paying attention to Him as a person, not as a one-dimensional being who is available only through specific spiritual disciplines.

He is not an institution but a personality. He has given us power through His Spirit to search Him out, to commune with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. His Word expresses His thoughts and His ways among human beings throughout all of history, and it tells us how He revealed Himself by becoming one of us and redeeming us. When we feast on His Word, we feast on the thoughts and desires of His Spirit. And all creation declares His glory—in the design of life, in beautiful sunsets and storms, in the vastness of the universe, and more. So we get to experience Him in all sorts of ways.

One of the ways we experience God is by remembering His miracles and marvels and giving Him thanks, as Psalm 103 shows us:

With my whole heart and with my whole life and with my innermost being, I bow in wonder and love before you, holy God. Yahweh, you are my soul’s celebration. How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness you’ve done for me? You’ve kissed my heart with your forgiveness and in spite of all I’ve done, you’ve healed me inside and out from every disease. You’ve rescued me from hell and saved my life. You’ve crowned me with love and mercy and made me a king. You satisfy my every desire with good things. You’ve supercharged my life so that I soar again like a flying eagle in the sky. You’re a God who make things right, giving justice to the defenseless. You revealed to Moses your plans and showed Israel’s sons what you could do. You’re so kind and tenderhearted to those who don’t deserve it, so very patient with people who fail you. Your love is like a flooding river, overflowing its banks with kindness. You will not always be finding fault, never holding a grudge against us, but your mercy overcomes our mess.

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