Experiencing God Firsthand
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8)
Why settle for a secondhand faith when you can have a firsthand experience with God? I still remember thumbing through a National Geographic magazine with an entire spread featuring Alaska. I was captivated by the beautiful photographs of Denali, walls of ice calving into Glacier Bay and a grizzly in search of salmon with a bald eagle flying overhead.
You can probably imagine my excitement the summer my wife and I finally got to travel to Alaska ourselves. No photograph could match what it felt like to actually see its beauty with my own eyes. Alaska in a magazine was simply a secondhand encounter, but Alaska in person was a firsthand experience I would never forget. Just as it is true with vacations, the same is also true when it comes to our spiritual lives: nothing can compare to having a firsthand experience with God.
None of us would choose to have someone else eat for us at our favorite restaurant. Nor would we settle for watching video clips of our favorite songs when we could choose to experience them at a live concert. Deep down, we know that some things simply cannot be fully experienced secondhand.
The Apostle James also understood this and tells us that we do not need to settle for a secondhand experience with God. He gives us a promise that guarantees a front row seat with our Creator, highlighting that as we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. In other words, God wants a firsthand experience with you. The God who spoke the universe into existence, who parted the seas, and raised the dead, invites ordinary, broken people like you and me into His presence through Jesus Christ.
In our busy world with assignments, deadlines, meetings, and health routines to maintain, it can be hard to find daily quiet time with God. Life can quickly crowd God out, and we settle for hearing someone else's experience and wonder why our faith feels shallow, secondhand, or borrowed. Do not get me wrong, hearing others share what God has done for them is a gift and Scripture is full of testimonies for that reason. But other people’s testimonies were always meant to point us toward our own personal connection with God, not replace it.
So where in your life have you been content with a “photograph” of God when God is offering you Himself? Maybe it is a friendship you have been managing in your own strength instead of surrendering to Him. Maybe it is a worry you have been trying to cope with through distraction instead of bringing it to Him in prayer. Maybe it is simply that your Bible has become a book you read but you have not allowed it to read you. Whatever it may be, God still desires to draw close to you.
Ellen White captured this sentiment when she wrote, "Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend.”[1] Friendship cannot be experienced secondhand, it requires time, honesty, and connection. That is what God is inviting you into today, a firsthand encounter with the One who calls you beloved. May you rest in the assurance that when you draw near to God, He is already drawing near to you.
[1] Ellen Gould White, Steps to Christ (Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1892), 93.
REFLECTION
Where have you been relying on someone else's experience with God instead of pursuing your own?
What is one thing you have been holding back from bringing directly to God in prayer?
What would it look like this week to trade a "secondhand" glimpse of God for a firsthand encounter with Him?
