Episode #346 Cultivating Wonder in Your Faith – How to Bring Your Feelings to God

Hey, friend. When's the last time you would say you've experienced wonder? This is a necessary emotion and it is vital to our faith. We don't talk about it enough as adults, especially not as Christians. Because we worship a God who's beyond understanding. Every time we draw near to him, every time he reveals something new to us about himself or ourselves, or the world that we're in, that prompts wonder in us.

We're made for wonder and awe. But we have far too little of it, and so it can make our faith feel anemic. It can make us feel heavy and left behind, when that is the furthest thing from the truth. And so today we're drawing close to God to experience more wonder of him.

I wanna start us off by actually reading from Luke chapter two verses 15 through 20. And this is not to describe what we ought to do when we experience wonder. But I want to use these verses to depict what happens when we do. It says,  

"When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

  But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them."

They experienced wonder at the revelation of who Jesus was. And as I read this, I can say, okay, well yeah, but they had angels, a multitude of angels that burst out from the sky singing in the heavens. That hasn't happened to me. But the part that jumped out at me in preparing for this episode was after this happened, full of wonder, they said, let's go see what the Lord has made known to us. And then they went and saw, and that multiplied their wonder. Even Mary, with the things she did not understand, she was able to ponder them and treasure them in her heart.

That caused me to stop and think, what are the things that the Lord has made known to me that I could wonder at? There are so many things that he has made known to us, that he has made known in his word, that he has revealed to us in our lives. The salvation that he has offered us. The redemption that he has brought. The prayers that he has answered.

I'm actually gonna take a minute to read a poem for you from my poetry collection, A Beckoning to Wonder. This is a beautifully, fully illustrated poetry collection of Christian poetry exploring God's story. And as I read this, my hope is that God uses it to spark wonder in you at what he's already done. What he has already told you about and showed you. That he would foster this moment of wonder in you that it could be a shared experience that you have with him in a fresh way, based on something he's already done and already made known.

And so I'm gonna read for us the poem titled Unbroken.

“God's Story continues unbroken throughout time and space, and circumstance. It didn't end or even detour from the Divine Plan in that ancient garden when humanity stole forbidden fruit. Before crafting our existence, God determined our deliverance.

It didn't end in Malachi in the last book of the Old Testament telling of the one to prepare the way for Messiah some 400 years in advance. It didn't end in those centuries of silence either.

God's story didn't end in the New Testament when invisible God became visible flesh, living word, heart beating, light dwelling among us.

It didn't end as Jesus died, descended, defeated sin and death, rose ascended, promised the Holy Spirit proclaimed his future return.

No, there was no end then even the book of Revelation isn't an ending. The last verses of the God-breathed book read like a to be continued with a red letter Lamb who was slain King. Jesus commitment: Yes, I am coming soon.

It didn't end. It didn't even detour. Instead, in the impending dawn of Christ's return, pain folds, evil falls, vanquished. God will again illuminate the earth without need for the sun circling back to our beginning as good stories often do. Stay tuned.”

There is so much that God has already revealed to us and so much that we can wonder at and live from. And so here's a question that I invite you to take to him today to ask him how to make this practical and real for you, to cultivate wonder as this shared moment with him:

God, what's something that I've rushed past recently that I can pause to wonder at?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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