This morning I had the occasion to rise early and meet about 65 students (mostly Jr. Highers) for an annual event we hold at our church - See You At The Pole Breakfast. It's a pretty neat event where students come to church to grab breakfast before heading off to their schools to pray (we're right across the street from a middle school).
I gave a devotion that I thought I would share. The theme of this year's SYATP was "Reveal", and as I prepared the devotion, I asked myself the question, "what is it that I'm really asking for as I pray?" When we talk about God revealing himself, do I know what we're really asking?
In the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy and her gang come back from having fulfilled the formidable wizard's request only to be rebuffed. The following scene depicts the Wizard being revealed.
Is this what it's like that God should be revealed? Behind all that cosmic power and awesome greatness, is there nothing but a pudgy, cheeky, little fellow with too much make-up on, pulling strings and performing tricks to scare us into obeying him?
No! When God reveals himself, people see the world and themselves as they really are. Elisha prayed it for this servant (2 Kings 6:17ff.); Isaiah responded to it (Isaiah 6); Simeon experienced it (Luke 2).
Have you ever had an encounter with something so powerful, so beautiful, so wonderful that it changed you? This is what we're asking for when we say, "God, reveal yourself." We're asking that the most beautiful, just, creative, righteous, holy Being in the entire universe reveal the character and the power behind the will and purposes. We're asking God to show himself as the loving and just Creator that He is so that our lives, our relationships, even our very thought patterns would be different. If God were to reveal himself, what about our life, our perspective, our interests, or our circumstances would change?
How would we treat people? see people?
How would we talk? What would we talk about?
How would we respond to the crises? drama?
What would we live for?
Can you imagine a future in which God revealed himself powerfully and tangibly? If not, then you've got nothing to pray for. Your prayers will be nice platitudes offered for a world that doesn't matter. But if so, then perhaps the first line of Jesus' prayer in Matt 6 will matter to you: Our Father, the one in heaven, make your name to be revered as holy! If this is your future, will you start praying that future into being today?
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