My pastor has been doing a sermon series that is focused on encountering God. He has challenged us in this area and has spoken on what it looks like to encounter God face to face. I have loved having growth in relationship with Christ that involves encountering God. I find that there are so many times that I don’t stop and see my encounters with God. I feel Him close and know that He is walking with me day by day, but do I really stop and acknowledge the ways that He is present? Many times I do not.
I loved how my pastor challenged me in looking at that encounter with God and how when you do encounter God it is above and beyond just information (God wants us to know Him by our experiences with him); it is above and beyond competence (it isn’t just performance or duty) and it is above and beyond expectations … this is the one that I love to be challenged with. Does God live in a box of my making? Do I downsize Him to my capacity of understanding? WOW! That one really hits home for me. I know that I get challenged in this area and sometimes I forget that when things are accomplished beyond what I am able to do, that is when we can really see God. A dear woman I met recently said to me “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough” …. I directly translate that into, if it is something that you can do without God’s help, than are you really stepping out doing the most that God has for you to do?
I was blessed this week to see another amazing work of God unfold before my eyes. I was scheduled to meet with someone at 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon and we needed a sign language interpreter for this meeting. I thought I had an interpreter confirmed but realized on Monday afternoon and then throughout Tuesday that the company that was searching for one was not successful. On Wednesday, my co-worker, Anita, asked me if I wanted to go with her to an open house for a newly opened maternity home in our area. I told her I could not because of my meeting that I had scheduled for that afternoon. I mentioned to her that I still needed an interpreter and was not sure how that meeting was going to go. Additionally, Wednesday morning I prayed out loud while making my bed, “God please bring me an interpreter.” About noon on Wednesday, Anita (while at the open house) called me and asked if I still needed an interpreter, to which I said “YES!” She informed me that she had one for me. She was walking through this new maternity home, talking to the house parent of the home and she happened to ask her what she did for a job before becoming the house parent. She told Anita that she worked as a sign language interpreter. Anita told her of my predicament, and she said, “I can do it!” So, we rearranged our meeting to be held at this maternity home (which then allowed me to go see it and meet the staff) and this interpreter was a complete and total blessing to our meeting. She was incredible to work with and through her compassionate heart brought so much to our meeting. How do things like that happen if you don’t believe in an omnipresent God who wants to be with us and wants us to meet with Him. I love how he displays His power and glory. Did He have to make it work this way? No, He could have provided an interpreter (like I was expecting when I tried to book one days earlier), instead, He decided to show up, in a way that reminds me of His power and that He wants to be above and beyond my expectations! So incredibly fun to get to watch that happen. When you decide that you are going to encounter God face to face … the things that happen are amazing!
