October 22, 2017
“When do you feel closest to God?”
A “good” answer to this question would be something along the lines of feeling closest to God when I’m battling an obstacle in life and I’ve turned to God for strength and comfort to push through. While I am working each day for this to be my real answer, I have to say the reality for most of us, at least for me anyway, is that I honestly feel closest to God when life is going good. When I’m on that spiritual high, being successful in doing devos every day, not currently fighting any battles, I’m having fun, stress isn’t eating me alive, and I’m happy. Those are the days I look to God and thank Him, worship Him, praise Him, love Him, compliment Him, and talk to Him. I know I know, when things in life aren’t looking so good, those are the times you should really be turning to God and trusting Him. In fact, I think those are the times that are most important to praise Him, because that’s when your relationship with God grows stronger; when you’re praising Him amidst struggle, because it requires you to really lean on His strength and nearness. But to be honest here, I don’t think I’ve ever looked to God in the middle of pain and said “God, you are an amazing God, and I thank you for this trial in my life.” Because I mean that sounds crazy right?!? Like, “hey, God, thanks for this obstacle. I’m having a blast, could you throw a couple more my way?” No, instead we ask God to end the misery and bring us out of the pain. But what if we looked at this through a different lens? What if, and I’m just going out on a limb here, but what if we looked at trials, obstacles, pain, misery hardships as tests and opportunities?
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:6–9
Here, Peter is writing to Christians who were being persecuted for following Jesus. He says that in this you “greatly rejoice,” though you may have had to “suffer grief” through trials. Whaaaaaaaat??? Is Peter really implying here that we can have both joy AND grief amongst hardships? I don’t know about you, but when I first read this I completely disregarded it because if I’m sad, I’m gonna get a big bag of pretzels, watch some Netflix, and there’s no way I’m “rejoicing.” But take another look at this verse. It’s almost like we are being commanded to have joy in the midst of trials. It’s like those times where God says, “you of little faith, get up and follow me.” I remember reading somewhere (don’t remember where, whoops) that it’s not denying pain, but realizing that pain and sadness can exist together. Denying pain would be denying God’s TESTS. When you are approaching a battle, God isn’t asking you to run the other way or go around it. He’s telling you to pick up your cross and run right into it. My promise to you is that God will never, ever, EVER allow an obstacle in your life that won’t bring you closer to Him. If we look at every trial as a way to get closer to God, what fear will we have left?
So, to answer the question “When do you feel closest to God?” my answer is that I am working towards feeling the closest to Him amidst trials. I know that anytime I have looked to God in the middle of feeling pain, it has made it easier the next time to trust in Him. My goal is for it to be a habit to PRAISE God amidst obstacles, and thank Him for the opportunity to cast all my worries upon Him and grow closer to Him through such tests.
God, I will praise You in the storm.
Much love, Em