Episode #148 God Longs To Show You Something New – Cultivate Wonder

Hey friends, God is inviting us to know him more today.

If you're new around here, hey, I'm Jen, and I'm so grateful to spend these few minutes with you here on the podcast. My aim is to help you experience life with God, not just for him or because of him, although those things are true, but life with him.

And today we're looking at God's invitation to know him more than the way we've currently perceived him up until this point. There's a common phrase that's thrown around in a lot of business or strategy circles.

And the quote goes, that perception is reality. Now I understand where this quote is coming from. Because we live according to our perceptions, what we believe and perceive tends to be a lens that we use in how we engage in the world around us. But perception can be faulty.

Perception is often limited. The way that I perceive myself or perceive a circumstance It's only based on the experience or the insight or the knowledge that I currently have.

My perception is often even filtered by the other things that are going on in my life during that day, and all sorts of different things can cloud my view.

And especially when we're talking about God, our perception is drastically limited compared to the grandness of all of who he is.

Now, we often live according to what we believe or perceive. And so today I think God is inviting us to broaden our perception, to broaden our belief about the possibilities of who he is and what we can experience in life with him.

Along this vein, there's a story that I want to read for us from 2 Kings chapter 6. The king of Syria is at war with the king of Israel. And the man of God, Elisha, goes and tells the king of Israel where his enemy's camp is going to be. And so, rightly so, the king of Syria is concerned that there's a spy in his camp that's telling his enemy where he can be found. And his servants tell him, Nope, but there's this guy named Elisha and he's a prophet who's in Israel and he hears from God and then tells the king of Israel the things that you decide when you're at home in your bedroom. And so the king says, uh, that's not going to work for me. Go find out where he is. We're going to seize him. And they tell him where Elisha is staying. And so picking it up in verse 14 and reading through verse 17, it says:

“So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:14-17)

And the story goes on, they thwart the enemy God delivers them into their hands. But the part of the story that I really wanted to focus on is the circumstance of the young man. He goes out and sees a physical army surrounding the whole city. And Elisha prays and asks God to open his eyes that he would see. And he sees the invisible army of God's kingdom that vastly outnumbers the human army that surrounds them.

We see a similar wording talking about opening our eyes in other places in scripture.

In Psalm 119:18, it says “open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

In Ephesians 1:17-18, it says “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints”

And then finally, in Luke 24. This is after Jesus has resurrected from the dead, and he's walking on the road to Emmaus with two other travelers. And they're talking with him about his death, but they don't recognize that it's Jesus. Then they invite him to stay with them. And so picking it up in verse 30 through 31, it says,

“When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.” (Luke 24:30-31)

See, our perceptions can be limited by all sorts of things.

And oftentimes it's the tangible, visible, finite things that capture our attention. When I'm going through my day, I can think about all of the things that need to get done.

The problems that need to be solved, the plans that need to be made, any pain that I'm walking through. I can so easily perceive those things that sometimes they take over my view of God.

But God is constantly inviting us to have the eyes of our hearts opened to see Him and to experience Him more fully. Even in dire circumstances—like an army surrounding your city—there is still a greater reality that surrounds you. (And we're talking more about that in the next episode, so subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss that one.)

But for today we want to pause here and take this conversation to God. We want to ask him what he wants to show us about the circumstances that we're walking through.

In God, our reality is much greater than our perception. So let's ask him to show us more about it. And here's our question:

God, please open my eyes that I might see. What do you want to show me?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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