Glimpses.
I sometimes legitimately question whether I’m crazy.
Anyone remember when there would be prizes in cereal boxes?
You’d open the box and tilt it to shift the contents to find the prize.
Sometimes, it would look like the prize wasn’t in there.
So you’d pour out the entire box in a large bowl. You would dig through it, creating a crater in the bowl, and you might catch a glimpse of a color or form that stood out, that was different than its surrounding, but the heaps of cereal you had displaced would come crashing back down into the bowl to fill the hole again.
If after digging and shifting stuff around for a minute, you hadn’t found it, you’d start to wonder whether you really saw what you think you saw.
Whether you would get the prize was determined by whether you really believed there was a prize and if you really wanted it.
That’s what my faith walk is like sometimes.
I’ve caught glimpses of the Prize, but this world is like that bowl full of stuff that you have to dig through and push to the side to find it.
And when you get that glimpse, and your heart leaps for joy, the world has a way of crashing back in on you and leave you wondering where you ever saw the Prize at all. This is because this world is not inanimate stuff, rather it’s a spiritual thing operating under principalities and powers, under the sway of the Evil one, operating with malicious intent:
Lies block Love.
The world is not just some neutral object, it’s the wool pulled over our eyes to blind us to the Prize. The world is not some lifeless thing.
But, neither is the Prize.
Hallelujah!
We have been sent a Message, messengers and the Messenger, to declare their is a Prize.
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;”
—Hebrews 1:1-2
https://bible.com/bible/114/heb.1.1-2.NKJV
I heard that Word and was granted glimpses of the Prize that caused me to believe it.
By faith through grace, I have been given a desire. I want the Prize!
However, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches constantly crash in on me, blocking my view of the Prize.
“Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.”
—Matthew 13:22
https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.13.22.NKJV
But, God.
The Prize came to save me and thanks be to God, He did not leave it to me to lay hold of Him, He keeps coming to me!
This is why Jesus is called our Savior. When the world comes crashing in and I cry out to Him, “Lord, save me!” He rescues me.
My Savior lifts me out of the flood and allows me to walk firmly upon it, setting my feet on His Word. And, His Word, the good news where my feet are planted is this:
We can do more than know about God.
We can know God.
We can be with God!
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
—John 10:10
https://bible.com/bible/114/jhn.10.10.NKJV
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/jhn.17.3.NKJV
We can do more than know about God.
We can know God.
We can be with God.
And, we can experience God.
And, you know where I most readily experience Him?
Loving obedience.
A real Glimpse causes me to love God. And when I obey the Glimpse God allows me to see through the Spirit by His Word which is Christ, or when I encounter others who are lovingly obeying Christ’s revelation, this is when I most readily perceive His form and encounter His person.
The world still crashes in, but I’ve encountered the Prize. I’ve seen too much, I’ve laid hold of and have been laid hold of too long to doubt Him now.
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
—Philippians 3:12 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/php.3.12.NKJV
All of us were given life for the purpose of the Prize.
He makes Himself known and it has been declared to us through the Word there is a Prize.
Whether we get the Prize is determined by whether we really believe there is a Prize and if you really want it.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
—Hebrews 11:6
https://bible.com/bible/114/heb.11.6.NKJV
I attest to you there is a Prize.
We can do more than know about God.
We can know God.
We can be with God.
Believe the Word.
Repent, lay this world aside.
Seek and you shall find.
#gospel
Photo courtesy of Mr. Breakfast
https://www.mrbreakfast.com/list.asp?id=6