As Christians it is easy to get stuck in thinking of God from our own personal perspectives; I mean that It is easy to get stuck within the kingdom of self because we experience every day from the vantage point of ourselves. That is why I want to turn you on to the humbling experience of empathy, or the ability to mentally put yourself in their shoes. It can work wonders for your ability to feel compassion even for those who persecute you and it can have a humbling effect.
What I want to share with you is that humbling effect that can be born of empathy. I want you to imagine yourself or think back on a time you prayed and asked God for an answer to something and then received that answer in a sermon the following Sunday worship service. You were probably sitting in that pew listening intently to what the pastor had to say or, we've all been there, started to drift off in your head or to sleep. All of a sudden, you snap to attention, the hairs on your back stand up and it occurs to you that God just answered your prayer through the preacher. You're now pumped up, praise God, Hallelujah, it is a fantastic feeling isn't it? When you know God is answering your prayers! It has happened to me quite a few times, but that is not the most amazing revelation. When we hear that answer we think "Praise God, He is listening!" But what is really going to bake your noodle later on is when you realize that you're not the only one He's talking to...
Imagine yourself in this situation, you're in church, you just heard the answer to your prayer but then before you celebrate and glorify God imagine that what just happened to you may have already happened to someone else earlier in the sermon. Look around and picture light bulbs turning on over the heads of the congregation and then give glory to God. Step out of your own limited perspective and worship God from the vantage point of your whole congregation! Remember that God isn't your own personal God, He is a global God, THE ONLY God! Then you look over the congregation and you begin to see how He is speaking to everyone, answering everyone's prayers. When I prayed and would ask God things and have them answered in sermons I would think to myself "Wow, that sermon was just for me." It never occurred to me that that sermon could have had the girl next to me or the elderly man in front of me saying the exact same thing. This thought didn't pop into my head until I accepted God as a global God, a universal God, who conducts His work on a grand Godlike scale. Sure I praised God for those moments when He answered me but you better believe I praised Him all the more passionately when I started to see how God is working around me, even without my knowing, in the personal lives of our brothers in sisters in Christ, who we see every Sunday!
This weekend when you're in church just think about that as your listening to the sermon and worshiping. Think about God on a grander scale than as your own personal God and then if you've ever wondered why that pastor is up there in front of all those people preaching every week, that is your answer. He is at work all the time, around you, around those who are around you, and around those who aren't around you. God bless you all!
If you haven't yet peeked at the site I am working on then give it a look, click here.
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