“In the past, I only knew what others had told me, but now I have seen you with my own eyes” JOB 42:5 GNT
I have not been able to get over this scripture since I read it few days ago during our family devotion. For the past few weeks, we have, as a family, studied a chapter daily of the book of JOB and it has been a pleasant experience. There are some books of the Bible that some people don’t find interesting but these usually come out more clearly when they are read in simpler versions like it is in this quoted scripture above. I have read the book of JOB previously but I saw a new dimension to it as we used a simpler version and I have picked some few new lessons.
There are a lot of testimonies we have heard in times past; news about the doings of God in the lives and situations of others, in communities, nations etc. We have read, heard and have been told of the acts of God among Men just like Rahab also did and proclaimed in Joshua 2:10.
She declared that she had heard about the acts of God as a result of which terror had come upon the people of Jericho. They knew that the God of Israel was (and still is) not to be toyed with. My excitement about this is the fact that Rahab did not stop at the level of “having heard or been told”; she moved on to teaming up with the Israelites and this led to her experiencing God personally. She moved from hearing about God to the level of seeing God in her life and affairs. She saw the help and deliverance God wrought for her and her family; she saw the grace and favour of God that enlisted her in the ancestral lineage of the Lord Jesus.
Many times as believers, we hear or are told and probably read about the glorious acts of God. Our knowledge of God is sometimes limited to what we are being told about God and we stop at that. We think or believe that there is nothing more for us beyond that. Infact, we sometimes believe some experiences are beyond our reach and out of our domain. It is actually a beautiful thing to be told about the wondrous love and acts of God, but how so wonderful to go beyond just what we’ve heard been told, to actually experiencing those things that we hear about or know of God. We must move up higher to seeing and experiencing the operations of God in our affairs. This was the experience and the testimony of JOB. He confessed to having seen God; meaning he had a personal encounter of God. It was not just news flying around but he also was a beneficiary of the glorious helps of God.
As the year 2021 goes to an end, it is my sincere prayer that you will experience God in glorious ways. That your knowledge of God will not only be based on what you are told or have heard but what you have personally experienced. May you (&I ) experience God and see His operations more and more in the affairs of our lives. Amen!
From the desk of FunmiAdebayo Journals, here’s wishing you a blessed Christmas celebration and New Year ahead.
© Funmi Adebayo