August 6

“They never see that fullness, for they never look at it.  They cry out, ‘O Lord, reveal yourself’; but, instead of looking at God, they look at themselves, and keep their gaze steadily fixed on their own feelings, and then wonder at the ‘mysterious dealings’ of God in hiding His face from them.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 8/6

I’m always looking for what I call natural, logical ways to understand things so that I can convince myself to do things in a different way.  If I don’t do that, I find it very difficult to change if the old way is still “working” for me.  Hannah has given me another aspect of why I need to quit looking at myself.  As long as I keep looking at myself--my mistakes, my successes, my whatever, I’m not going to be looking at God.  If I’m not looking at God, then I’m going to miss what I need to see in order to follow God.  Yes, God may intervene in such a way that I can’t help but see Him.  Those times only come in crises it seems.  I want to see God in all the moments of my life.  There I will experience the peace and the wonder of being in His presence.  It will make all things sweeter---even the good things, but especially the difficult things.  Bittersweet is a word I find myself using often.  I think it’s a good word because it acknowledges that we can find the sweetness in the bitter if we are looking at God.

“How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”  Psalm 119:103