2 - God's answer: the first step!
Recapping just a bit. “God, what is the answer?” I asked. It was one evening, when I was home from college on a break, that I found my self laying in my bed looking at the moon and stars through my bedroom window that the question came to mind. Didn’t expect the frightening and immediate result; a result that ended up in my running to my parents and pounding on their bedroom door in fear. Check out the previous page “1 – God, what is the answer?” if you have not read it, for a more complete description.
I did not understand it then, but that event started me down the path to discovering God’s reality.
My parents, hearing me crying and pounding on their door, got out of bed and asked me what was wrong. After explaining to them what happened, they were at a loss as to what to say or do but my Mom went over to a closet and got out a Bible they had stored there. She said that since this started with a prayer, that maybe if I took the Bible and read it, it would help.
Well, taking the Bible from her didn’t help….and yet it did help. It did not make this thing, this problem of the fear, go away but I found that it did help me deal with the fear. I returned to my bed and placed the Bible on my chest and began saying “God will save me” over and over, like counting sheep, until I fell asleep. My everyday life became secondary to the need I had to deal with this situation. It wasn’t a conscious decision. When you put your hand in the fire, you don’t think about the need to get it out of the fire, you just do it. And this thing, the problem of the fear, was there every night to remind me. I began reading the Bible and seeking God.
But things began to happen. Check out the next page “3 – Baptism, the laying on of hands, and a prophecy!”.
Notes
God has revealed himself, and does reveal himself, to us in many different ways. Although I was not aware of it at the time, God brought about two things in my life at that moment in time; the fear and the Bible. The fear gave me a real reason to begin to seek God and the Bible gave me hope for the future in dealing with the fear.
The Bible, being in many respects a history of the interaction between people and God, is in reality also a compilation of those times and ways in which God revealed himself to people. There is no better text book on the interactions of God and man than that found in the Bible. And there is no better way for a person to begin to discover God, to learn about God, and to be introduced to his character and individuality than through the reading of the Bible. For a person seeking God, reading the Bible is important.
Having said this though, I would also say that the scripture does not say “seek me and you shall find the Bible”; rather it says “seek me and you shall find me”. The treasure to be found is to find Him; the Bible is a roadmap to help in doing so.
Finding God involves not just an action on your part but also an action on God’s part; God has to reveal himself to you. Finding God is about becoming aware of the reality of God AND about forming a relationship between you and God. While one can become aware of the reality of God in an instant of time, forming a relationship with Him (getting to know Him) requires time. In that respect, it is little different from getting to know any other person.
A couple scriptures
Psalm 14: 2 (KJV) “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.”
Proverbs 8:17 (KJV) “I love those who love me, and those who diligently seek me will find me.”