SEEING GOD WITH YOUR OWN EYES

Job 42:5 “I have heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.”

I remember a story about a six-year-old little girl and her mother. They say that the two of them were driving in the mountains of California. When all of a sudden the mother lost control of the car and drove off of a small cliff. The mother felt that her vitals were diminishing, so before she died she told that six year old little girl to wait right here until somebody comes. Three days later when the rescue team found her the little girl was waiting right there in the car beside her deceased mother. A few years later they interviewed this little girl and asked how did she last so long? She said I just kept waiting for “the somebody” to show up. The reporter asked did she know who that person was. She said I only knew mommy said they were coming. So I waited for them.

Many times when we struggle and our lives are starting to turn upside down we tend to think that God has forgotten about us. We began to wonder if God is real. We wonder if God cares. And we even start to wonder if he knows what he is doing. Just because you have heard of God does not mean that you have experienced God. Job makes it clear when he begins the 5th verse by saying my ears had heard of you. The past tense word “had” lets us know that before his encounter with God he did not know God like he thought he did. He admits that he had only heard of God.

So Job admits that maybe he did not know God but had only heard of God. But after he admits only hearing about God, he then acknowledges that he now has seen God. It was difficult to see God while things were going well. When the family was tight and the money was right it was easy to believe that you pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps. Mankind has a tendency to become conceited over our own wisdom and power. We can concentrate so much on what we have accomplished that we easily forget how impotent we really are. We forget that at best we are copyists who borrow wisdom from God. We can make an airplane but we can’t make a bird. We can make a submarine, but we can’t prepare a belly of a great fish to swallow somebody down and prevent all enzymes from dissolving everything within the stomach. We can build a skyscraper but we cannot form a mountain.

But it is easy to see God when your back is against the wall and you find the strength to come out swinging. When you are sick in your body but somehow you keep right on going. That is when you see God. When you don’t have any money but you just keep right on eating and eating well. That is when you see God. You know that you did not have it. You know that you did not have the power to get it done. So that is when it is easy to see the power of God in your life. Dr. C. T. Walker had it right when he said, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” Job was finally able to see God when he could no longer depend on what he had. So don’t get discouraged because you can’t see your way out just start looking for God. And I promise that you will find him in the empty places fill the voids in your life. That is why the old saints said God is food when you’re hungry, water when you’re thirsty, and a shelter in the time of the storm.