When I try to seek God and draw close to Him, I soon discover that it is I who pose the greatest barrier. God gave me an intellect and a reasoning mind and while intellect and reason can bring me to a place where He can be discerned, it lacks the power to convict and make real, that discernment. God also gave me senses and emotions and while these can sometimes touch the edges of His presence and essence, they are fleeting and ethereal, they disappear like vapour with the passing of the moment. God also gave me a spirit, some call it a soul, that yearns for Him and although it has both desire and need, it lacks the ability and strength to reach Him. All four, mind, body, heart, and spirit even in concert are stopped short at the veil of mystery that is God. They are like the painting in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, the finger of man reaching out to God, ever so close but never touching. For all my straining effort, it is as the Apostle Paul describes, I only see through a glass darkly. It is only when I surrender and allow Gods Spirit to work, and in humility acknowledge that it is ever Him who reveals and teaches. It is He who became incarnate in the person of Christ that reveals to us in the language of our mortal, earth-bound intellect, senses, emotions, and soul that we can come to know Him as He has condescended to be known. It is only through His grace that by and through Him that God is found and it is by that same grace that a close and deep communion with Him is realized.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:59:56 +0000