The other day while cleaning out an old TV cabinet my kids stumbled on a “Journal and Playbook” that I was assigned to fill out for one of my college courses at the University of Colorado. As we laughed and perused through the pages something significant jumped out to me.
On one page it asked me to “list everything you can think of wanting right now.” I listed “deeper faith in God” as one of my answers. On the next page of the journal it asked me to “Imagine yourself magic what magical things can you do?” (yes this was college, in case you wonder why my punctuation and sentence structure is often amiss now you’ll know why! Lol! I was imagining myself magic!) Anyway, so I notice that I put “talk to God on the phone if I wanted,” and “travel to heaven to visit the dead,” and “create a potion to live forever.” Later in the “Inspiration Guide” part of the journal I was asked to “write your favorite inspiring things inside of these shapes.” Again I was surprised to see that I had written “A good day with God.” What?!?! I wasn’t going to church, I had never read the Bible, and I certainly wasn’t living to please God (at this point in my life I had determined that it was impossible to please Him, so I’d given up completely on trying to be “good.” The college goal was to have fun without breaking any “major” laws or at least getting caught breaking any.)
Why was God on my mind so much? Has He been on your mind? Even though I thought about God, I never asked anyone any questions about Him. Why not? I’m not sure why I didn’t ask questions, probably because most of the people I hung out with were not asking questions, we were all just living for the day.
When prompted to “list some of your favorite books” in the journal, I listed “Bible Stories.” This was a set of books my mom read to me for a couple years when I was in 1st and 2nd grade before bed. These books were all based on Biblical principles.
As I pondered the fact that I had a desire to speak to God; to know God, to have a good day with God and to live forever, I am surprised that it took 9 more years before my life was radically transformed by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. This fact has brought me such hope for those that I pray for on a regular basis. God has always been at work in my life, and He is at work in your life and the lives of those you pray for. We will all be without excuse. He will make Himself known. I realized the big difference between my college years and when I finally began a life-transforming relationship with God 9 years later can be summed up in these two verses:
Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV
But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
I was not seeking in college with all my heart and soul, I wasn’t even seeking with half a heart. I was wishing…but God was faithful to answer (in His timing) 9 years later when upon meeting a “real” Christian I wanted to seek with all my heart. I rejoice with thanksgiving that I don’t need to “Imagine myself magic” to speak to God; to know and have a good day with God and to live forever. Those things are now my daily reality! God gives me the privilege of all of these things and so much more because I have accepted His Son Jesus as my Savior.
No magic, just Mercy. I love Him.
What would you tell someone to do if they were interested in knowing God to help them “seek” Him with their whole heart?
Written by Jamie Shaver