Toggles Connection Newsletter
Trophies of His Grace
Connecting With God
—by Alaine
(From the Toggles Connection Newsletter)
Isn’t life a trip??? What I mean is this; aren’t there a lot of “phases” in this journey called healing? Sometimes what we need the most is endurance. Sometimes it’s someone who understands. Sometimes it’s a quiet place to collect yourself. At other times, we need answers, direction, or discernment.
That’s why it’s crucial to keep the connection with the Lord as clear as possible. For most of us, especially at the beginning parts of our healing, it’s difficult to trust God. But, as much as we are able, we need to keep talking to Him.
But, how can we talk to God when we are afraid of Him, mad at Him, or terrified of trusting Him?
One of the practical things that I did to see some of the huge distortions I had about God removed and replaced with the truth was to read through the gospels with my video camera on. What I mean is that I watched Jesus Christ very closely—as He interacted with people, as He cried, as He tenderly touched those in need; and I studied what He is really like.
At first I was suspicious of Him. I thought He was a god who was ready to explode at the drop of a hat, or start yelling at people for no reason. But by reading slowly and carefully through the book of Mark, for example, I saw a different Jesus than the one I had pictured in my mind.
After I’d get through reading about an event in His life, I’d ask myself, “What does this tell me about what He is really like” At first it was hard, because I had never read Scripture to see His face; never looked at His word as an oil painting of Himself.
But after a while some of the distortions that were keeping me from trusting Him more began to fade away. I found that it was easier to talk with Him, easier to trust Him.
So if you’re at a place where there’s not much talking going on between you and the Lord, don’t get frustrated. Keep doing the practical things—like reading His Word—even if much doesn’t seem to be changing.
Once I heard someone describe the effect of reading God’s Word as “Sometimes like rain, sometime like snow.” What they meant was that there are times when we read the Bible and there is an immediate supply of “rain.” Some verse just seems to jump out at us, or be just what we needed at the time.
Other times it’s like snow. It piles up for later use. At just the right time in the spring, it melts and provides the water that is needed for the flowers to grow.
Don’t give up on reading the Word just because it doesn’t seem like it’s doing anything.
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
–Galatians 6:9I
