Always More
As I sit here in my living room, I am overwhelmed by the vastness of God. It amazes me that, even after 28 years of a relationship with Jesus, there are still unexplored depths of understanding and knowing who He is. After several years of a more intensified journey with Jesus, I believed I had a well-developed picture of His character, personality, and affection. Today, however, God turned it all upside down and drew me a picture of even greater detail. It was like He handed me a magnifying glass and gave me permission to examine more closely so I could see and experience intricacies I never knew there were. Suddenly, I am aware of the depths of God’s love that were hidden to me before. My experience today leaves me with one giant encouragement I want to share with you:
there never stops being more.
On this side of Heaven, we will never reach a state of fully knowing the Lord, but we have the opportunity to still grow closer to Him daily. It’s a very strange-but-exciting concept because this means He will constantly expand our capacity for vision and understanding. Although each revelation throughout the years has been exciting and had significant life-impact, I’m realizing that I was merely scratching the surface of what God would reveal to me in the years to follow. I am so thankful that our relationship with God is not a stagnant relationship, but one that is always alive and growing - and challenging. I’m thankful it’s a relationship which continually builds upon itself, not only to reveal more of God to me, but also to reveal more of me to me. I’m thankful that the Holy Spirit is always searching us, filling our hearts with the Word of God, and getting rid of everything that competes for God’s place, even when the “getting rid of” part is not the most enjoyable.
John 15:2 (NLT) says, “[Jesus] cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.” Basically, the Holy Spirit approaches the landscape of our inner person with pruning shears, saws, tree-trimmers, and occasionally chainsaws. When He does this, yes, it hurts (sometimes more than others), but He is making room in the garden of our souls for the seed He wants to grow: trees with fruit that we weren’t able to produce before, flowers with delightful aromas we’ve never smelled before, and bushes with sweet berries we’ve never tasted before. If you’ve ever gardened, you know that you cannot just plant seeds and leave them alone. Tending a garden is a continuous journey.
So my challenge to you today is that you would ask the Gardener of your soul, Jesus, to search your heart. Know that He might need to remove a couple limbs of distraction, prune a well-meaning, but slightly misformed, berry bush, or even cut down a tree of idolatry planted smack-dab in the middle of your soul. When He does these things, He is making room for more!
Ask Him to expand your capacity for understanding Him, and tell Him you want to know Him more.
I pray that we would encounter the “more” God has for us in this season and the ones to come!
