40 Days of Prayer - Day 2 Who are You? No, I will not ask you again the same question. Today, it’s your turn to ask the question: “Who are You?”. But direct it to the one that you call “Lord”. Saul, the great scholar and theologian of the first century, asked the same question. Advancing on his road to Damascus, in a hurry to complete his violent task, he had no doubt about who God was, and what mission God gave him: to make all those infidels turn back to the old faith of Abraham and Moses. In fact, he could quote from his mind, hundreds of passages from the books of Moses in support of his strong faith. Saul was a well-seasoned scholar with vast and detailed knowledge of the faith of his Fathers. He knew very well his God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Nothing was unknown, hidden or a mystery. His beliefs were well set in stone. Then, all of a sudden, literally out of the blue it happened, his God confronted him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5). I can only imagine how much confusion and frustration was in Saul’s mind at the time: “me, all this time, persecuting my Lord – unbelievable!! It must be a mistake, a hallucination maybe”. It took him three days to come out of shock and also regain his sight. Then, another 14 years passed before he was able to rearrange and replace all his wrong ideas about who God is and what’s His plan for him. All this time, in prayer, he searched and studied the Scriptures discovering extraordinary and new things about his Lord (Galatians 1:15-17). We, humans like to think, as Saul did, that we know everything about God. That’s why men invented theology (theo+logos means words about God), so they can categorize, arrange, sort and put God in their little boxes, all neat drawers, from A to Z, everything placed in clean, see-through plastic files. There is almost no mystery left that they, men of higher education, cannot explain, classify and find a place for it in a catalog. Even people with fewer diplomas, like to keep their own catalogs of God’s knowledge and they know them very well, many times reciting them by heart. They might call them twenty-some “fundamentals” or “manual” or “catechism” or whatever, but they still look like a cabinet with drawers. The sad truth is that people feel much more comfortable when they can fit their God into their own inside pocket. The God of the Bible is bigger than anyone’s cabinet. The One who mixed in the palm of His hand the dust of this diamond-blue globe, the One who had fun throwing galaxies in space like a giant game of pool, He is too big even for your own pocket. Today, pull out of your mental cabinet all your neatly arranged drawers, take all the colorful, well indexed files, open them and throw them up in your room. Let them drop on you, like a confetti rain. What did you say? It’s going to be a mess all around?! So what? Are you uncomfortable? A little bit confused? Worried that your image of God on which you worked so hard to build, would disappear? Be calm! Sit down! He is still the same God who found pleasure creating from chaos this beautiful planet we are living on. He is still the same God that called the scary storm: “Quiet! Be still!” (Mark 4:35-41). He is the one that can bring order and peace again into your file cabinet. Don’t rob God of His mystery by thinking you have all the truth lined up and there’s nothing else hidden! In fact you cannot do that. If you insist to keep your neatly arranged file cabinet intact, you might meet Him on your own road to Damascus. After that, it might take you a while to re-arrange all your confetti files. Today, empty your pockets. All of them. Yup, even that little one on the chest of your carefully ironed dress shirt. Let God be God again; let Him reign in your life, shrouded in mystery, crowned with glory. Stand in awe, blinded by His appearance and ask Him: Who are You, Lord?
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 09:59:15 +0000
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