Today is Day Two of 31 Days of Encountering God! If you missed the kick-off, you can go HERE and find the Introduction as well as each days post! (I will be adding every day as the month goes on!)
Early Encounters with God...
Well... here's the thing that I adore about the Lord:
Long before we ever entertain a thought about Him, He has had us on His mind and in His Heart since before the foundations of the world.
Honestly... just take a moment and let that sink in.
This is HUGE.
This can transform oh so many things... oh so many ways you think of Him... and of yourself.
He is really all about you. The Bible says in Psalm 139 "How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You."
Did you catch that? They are not just thoughts about me... about you? They are TO us! He is thinking thoughts TO us... and they are so many, that they outnumber the sands!
You see... for all of your days... He has been desiring to encounter you! He has been ordering your steps and pulling on your heart... He has been wooing you and courting you and encountering you all along!
Maybe some moments... you were made acutely aware! Many other times... He came in and out unnoticed... brushed over... explained away... but rest assured... it was Him!
He is so for you, my friend!
So... my early encounters? They are vast and more than I can recall... and not being raised in a church going home - God was a bit more creative in how He encountered me:
* Supernaturally saving my life from day one... actually - throughout my mothers pregnancy and my early delivery and complete blood transfusion... He sustained me for weeks and weeks before my mother was finally able to hold me, skin to skin... to pull me close and whisper that I was cherished!
* Aunts and Uncle reading Bible stories... tucking me in at bedtime... saying goodnight prayers.
* Easters at church with neighbors.
* Even through hard times... I felt a Presence and a knowing that everything would turn out alright... through health issues, family struggles, abusive neighbors... I knew God was close... even before I knew His Name.
* I remember LOVING Christmas... I know, most kids do... but as much as I loved the gifts... it was the music that got me excited! I can recall singing O Come Let Us Adore Him and Silent Night for hours and hours - He was wooing me all along the way!
* One of my most favorte cassette tapes (yeah - that's right... I said it! CASSETTE TAPE, ya'll!) was one Amy Grant: Collections that mysteriously showed up at my house when I was a teen and that was played over and over and over all summer long - as I belted out the lyrics, not having a CLUE what they meant (yet)!
You see... when we look back over our lives... through the good times and the bad... we can see His handiwork holding us up and guiding us near... for even when we were unaware - He was encountering us the whole time!
In the comments below today, I'd love to hear of an early encounter with God that you have had! Something that happened, either as a child, or a new Christian... even an encounter that you had BEFORE you met Him, that you can see now helped to pave the way to knowing Him. I love to hear how He has wooed us and how consistently He is working to capture our hearts!
Tomorrow I will share a bit more of my personal testimony... how the God of the universe convinced me that He was personally aware of me... how He had been with me all along!
Linking up with The Nester and 100s of other #31Day Bloggers!
I am linking up today with the lovely Jennifer Dukes Lee as well for:
Oh, I love how sweet and personal our God is, Karrilee! Thank you for sharing your story. As soon as I started reading it, my mind went immediately to Psalm 139. It is THE Psalm that God used to draw my heart to Him. I made a decision to accept him into my heart when I was 4, but it was when I was in Australia at the age of 17 that he confirmed his call on my life- after I had read Psalm 139 every day for 8 weeks! It is such a beautiful thing to look back on my life and see how he lovingly orchestrated all events.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to following along!
Love reading this list, love your series!
ReplyDeleteLoved reading this, Karrilee. Thoughts TO us. I'd never considered that before! Yes, I too grew up in a pre-Christian home, but I can also see how God was wooing me. Through early church experiences, through his creation, through the love of friends' parents who loved Jesus and I know prayed for my sister and me. So good to remember these early glimpses of his goodness. Love you, friend.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a "church" house and family but was really shepherded by my best friend's parents. I spent countless hours in their home, getting loved on and getting to know Jesus. To this day, they still encourage me.
ReplyDeleteI love this! Oh, how He loves us and pursues us relentlessly. I always was so tenderhearted to His presence, so I fell in love with Him when I was a little girl.
ReplyDeletePsalm 139 brings me so much comfort. I did not grow up in a Christian home, but I remember my sister and I use to read an old Gideon Bible which we had every night, and we would say "in Jesus' Name" when we were done. Even though my mind was not open to the understanding yet, I do believe that God was marking me even then for the day I would give my life to Him!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, we lived a couple blocks from the public library. I read voraciously. There I found books by Dale Evans Rogers and Catherine Marshall who spoke about their journeys of faith. My parents took us to church so I knew a lot of Bible stories and knew ABOUT Jesus. Then when I went to college, I was surrounded by believers in the dorm. I loved how they talked about Jesus as if they knew Him and I spent as much time with these exuberant people as possible. God used them (and all the earlier experiences) to draw me into His family early that school year. Finally I not only knew ABOUT Him, I KNEW Him!
ReplyDeleteDeb Weaver
thewordweaver.com
Karrilee- loving reading of your God encounters :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 7 I lost something and knew I was in trouble. I had heard about God at Sunday School, so I said: God, I have heard you are all-seeing, all knowing, so that means you can see whatever it is I've lost, so can you please give me a picture of where it is? Well- straight away came a picture- of a place where I would never had looked because it was out my window- so I have been asking him to show me where lost things are all my life since them- nearly 60 years. Our God is faithful !
Karrilee, you have such a way with words. I love how honest and sincere you are about His presence throughout your life and how if we know where to look and when to keep quiet, we can find always find Him.
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