Isaiah 42:20 says... “You see and recognize what is right, but refuse to act on it. You hear with your ears, but you don’t really listen.”
The prophet Isaiah is saying to the often wayward people of ancient Israel... You have seen many things, you know what God expects of you... but you pay no attention... your ears are open, yes you can hear, but you’re not really listening. Your behavior and conduct, your attitudes and desires do not match up with what God is saying to you.
Does that description fit your life in Christ? Can you honestly say... “I've seen many things, and always pay attention? I always conform my life to exactly what God requires of me?” This passage should speak powerfully to all of us about how we should approach our lives, always seeking to be in complete harmony with Christ. Are we truly aligned with Him?
Life brings many unexpected things our way, things that vex us and cause us difficulties. These experiences in our lives can and should be opportunities for reflection not despair. We're meant to reflect on our life experiences, our choices and the outcomes of our decisions. We should always be thinking... how is God present in a certain life experience? What might God be teaching me? How might God be changing me? Good questions to ponder.
Yet we're so rushed and busy, that we simply don't pay attention to the details of our experiences. We as a culture, and maybe even as humans are addicted to doing things that bring about amazing experiences. Instead of reflecting and noticing where God was in that experience, we just add them to our big, accumulating pile of life experiences. This is how we can get out-of-sync with God.
Such an attitude towards what’s happening in our lives, taking things for granted, living with a sense of entitlement, can have a negative impact on our spiritual growth. We make the mistake of resorting to a generic formula for spiritual growth. We think things like, "Read your Bible and pray, go to church on Sunday, go on a mission trip, memorize Scripture" . We prescribe these types of spiritual disciplines, believing they are enough to stay in harmony with God. Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here... personal spiritual disciplines are very important, but they must never be practiced generically, as if they are a one-size fits all formula for spiritual growth. Spiritual disciplines are not a pill we can pass out to people and say, "If you do this, you'll feel better and your relationship with God will grow."
We each have a unique relationship with God. Your relationship with God is dynamic, growing, and changing; what you're doing at a certain point in your relationship with Him is most likely different from what someone else is doing in their relationship with God, and that's to be expected, because we are all different. My spiritual practices need to be the ones that bring me closer to God; yours need to be the ones that take you to God. So the way to reflect, is for each person to pay attention, to listen to God and discern what specific practices and disciplines will best allow God to work fully and completely in you.
When we think about reflecting on our experiences and noticing God, we often think of "mountain top" experiences. Those are the times in which we've experienced something amazing or have sensed God's presence in a meaningful way. But then maybe you’ve never had a “mountain top” experience. What about "valley" times, when things are not going so well? We all have periods when God seems anything but close to us. When these times happen... we need to spend time meditating, praying, examining our attitudes and actions to see if we in fact have done something or may be harboring a negative [sinful] attitude that is blunting our intimacy with Him.
Maybe its time for us to see such times in our lives as a gentle warning... "the presence of the absence of God" and search our hearts and minds for why. It’s easy to blame God in these times when we sense God as hiding himself. God does not hide himself from us, unless we’ve done something to breach our relationship with Him. But even then we should not think of God as hiding... think of Him "waiting patiently" for us to figure ourselves out and take steps to get back on track with Him.
So... it may be that when you cannot sense the presence of God or it seems God is distant from you, it may be that you are too immersed in your own agendas, your wants, your desires, and you’ve not been allowing Him to work in you to move you to deeper personal intimacy with Him.
Being aware of that feeling of absence is the first step in examining ourselves and taking the steps to restoring our bond with Him... it is a way of knowing God deeper.
When you find yourself in a condition of profound spiritual desolation, that too is a real place in your spiritual journey with God. God's times of being unresponsiveness to us — is as real and valuable in growing spiritually, as it would be if we saw His handwriting on the wall. Never doubt that He is there... close to you, always aware of your circumstances and needs. Allow your trust and ultimately your faith to grow in these times.
