His Display of Affection

This post is per request...the question is "How Does God display Himself to you...or show you His beauty?"

I had to ponder this one a little bit. I mean, I could answer the question with basically one word, being the Scripture, but that might not fly very far for the person who is asking. 

I have started to notice that God deals with me in themes.  I am also starting to notice that His themes may stretch over a very long period of time.  What I want done 10 minutes ago, He wants drawn out.  He is a Tender One, and apparently, cultivating hearts takes a lot of time.  He is very considerate of our wounded hearts and invites us on a tender journey of knowing Him.  This road includes being stripped from strongholds and also transforming us into Christ's own image.  What a glorious thought that He doesn't just redeem us, but daily chooses to enter into our selfishness, greed, pity, sin, wallowing, pride, worry, and fear, and coax us out into a spacious place of grace.

His goal is intimacy and trust.  He created the world in seven days, but chooses to take His time with our frail hearts that need healing and wholeness.

He never ceases to wow me.

I am playing the song "Let it Rain" because it ties into the theme that God is working inside the recesses of this soul of mine.  Sometimes being God's daughter is like being thrust into a mystery novel.  He is often teaching you things, but He often only reveals one thing at a time, and it all seems to help you answer the question your heart is wrestling with at the time.

Right now, my theme is something like this:  God is the Master Gardener.  It started many years ago when He taught about wheat and the threshing process.  It then later deepened when He taught about the former and the latter rain.  Last November, I was given the word "fruit" that I knew would be for 2012.  Last December, after loss, I awoke one morning with the Holy Spirit whispering two words:  "Master Gardener."  This led to a sermon by Spurgeon that confirmed what I needed to hear at the moment, but also kept adding to the theme.

In January, I felt like I was dead in a sense.  I literally felt like a seed that had been buried deep, awaiting some sort of life and newness.  I knew He hadn't forgotten me, but instead, was standing guard, smiling to Himself over His plan. 

Now, in March, I still feel like the seed, but I wonder if I am about to poke through the soil.  I am heavy for anticipation and know that God is up to something.  I am hungry for harvest, and verses like Psalm 126:4-6 have been my lifeline..."And now, GOD, do it again-bring rains to our drought stricken lives.  So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest, so those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing."

I reread this passage this morning...which goes along with my theme and I am excited for my faith to become my eyes!  "Fear not...the trees are bearing fruit again...celebrate, be glad...He's giving you a teacher to train you how to live right--teaching, like rain out of heaven--showers of words to refresh and nourish your soul, just as he used to do...I'll make up for the great locust devastation."  from Joel 2 MSG

Really, every verse I have read for the past few months has to do with this theme...here is another, "Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessings of God."  Hebrew 6:7

The beautiful affection of our Father doesn't end with His Word.  This is where He really starts to blow my mind apart.  He has used circumstances and nature to confirm His promises and what He is up to.  I don't even know how I have been able to discern some of these things, except that I am constantly praying that He would give me eyes to see.

One time, I opened a random greeting card and received confirmation of something He had whispered over me just an hour before.  Another time, he had something bloom and stay alive for 20 days despite the freezing nights just to give me a beautiful visual reminder that something I had lost had been very real.

So, to wrap this thing up, I would say that God deals with me in themes.  He offers it in His word, and then confirms it in Godly counsel and circumstances.

If you don't keep a journal of some sort, then I would recommend it so much!  It is such a joy to look back over pages of scripture and thoughts and see that all along, God was up to something.  All along, He was allowing you to not just be a part of His mystery, but a part of the revelation as well.

A revelation that beautifully conforms you to the likeness of His only Son.