It is seemingly more difficult to “see God,” in today’s world. I do not say this due to personal opinion. I say this because I try to listen to what is said to and around me.
We perhaps wish to be like Moses. Maybe some of us wish desperately to get a glimpse of God. To see God. People have stated they ‘see God,’ by witnessing what happens around them. For example: Person A is attempting to cross the street. Person A has a bag in their hand. Person B is twenty yards behind Person A. Person B notices objects in Person A’s hand and also the fact Person A is trying to cross a busy street. Person A moves forward onto the street only to drop bag. Person B rushes quickly to swoop up Person A out of the way as an oncoming car nearly hits Person A. Person C looking out of their nearby house window says, “Wow! There really are still good people in this world. There must be a God.”
This is as hypothetical as we can be. Bare with me please. ‘Seeing God,’ isn’t easy. The reason people say it is increasingly harder to ‘see God,’ is based on the premise the world is getting worse. People are not doing good. People do not care about anyone but themselves. People do bad things to others. Therefore, we aren’t really being Jesus’s hands and feet. What does that lead to? Not seeing God.
I do not believe that is entirely true. Absolutely, bad things happen. People choose to do bad things to others. That is only part of the reason we are not seeing God.
I believe one reason we do not ‘see God,’ is because we really do not look for God. We claim we do, but don’t. Looking for God only on Sundays doesn’t count. Almost everyone looks for God on Sunday. We often consume ourselves with so much other stuff that God is the last person we are trying to ‘see.’ Everything and everyone else suits our eye so ‘seeing God,’ is not all that important to us. We don’t come out and say it, but it’s true.
The main reason we do not ‘see God,’ is because we are trying to see pure God with an impure heart. We can claim to be Christian and believe in God and believe in what Jesus did for us….and still have an impure heart.
Jeremiah reminds us the heart is deceitful (Jer. 17:9-10).
Sure, we can be extremely intelligent. But if our heart is hardened and darkened, we will not ‘see God.’
Jesus said it best in Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
There is a great challenge today. The challenge is to truly give our heart to God so that we can be granted a new one. To actually be made new. The old passed away. The new come. It’s not easy to give yourself away. It’s not simple to let the old person die so God can make us into being the person we were created to be.
Too many of us are trying to see a pure God with our impure hearts.
We say, “I can’t be perfect. Nobody is perfect.” Jesus does in fact accept all who come to Him in faith. His grace covers our sin. His mercy is for all. But God still has high standards of us. We cannot discount the words of Paul and others that require us to live a certain way. Not out of obligation, but gratitude.
The great news is we do not do this alone. We are not told to live a certain way on our own power, to save ourselves. Thanks be to God.
Ezekiel 36:26 says “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you…”
That is how we can do this. God grants us the power. God gives us a new heart. IF we accept it.
We can continue to worry. We can continue trying to see God with impure hearts and old spirits. OR, we can completely surrender. We can surrender our hardened heart, be given eyes to see. Be made pure…by His grace.