I know I’m a weirdo. But I am comfortable in my own skin, weirdness and all! So I have to tell you what happened to me the other night! I was studying several passages of Scripture right before going to bed. I was focusing on passages about holiness and godliness. I was in that zone where you’re just communing with the Lord and feeling His presence. Then I turned off the light to go to sleep, still feeling embraced by the sweetness of His presence.
Then it happened. I looked at my half-open bedroom door, and there was a light shining on it. It flickered for several seconds, then went away. It happened several times. Now, I’m not a person who looks for ethereal or supernatural experiences. I believe God reveals Himself most clearly in His Word, and I don’t go looking for “experiences.” But the light kept sporadically flickering. My next thought was that maybe there was an intruder turning a light on in my den. I got up and peeked around the corner. I wasn’t even afraid because I had been feeling so close to the Lord. Nobody there. I went back to bed, and the light flickered again. I began to feel this incredible awe, like…Lord, is that You? Then I felt afraid. Not of an intruder, but of God.
If this light was something God had sent to signify His presence, the thought was overwhelming, even though I am secure in my salvation. As much as I try to live in obedience, I’m still sinful and totally undeserving to be in His presence.
I began to think about the Scriptures I had been studying. Passages about God’s wrath toward sin and how He calls us to holiness. Jesus didn’t die on the cross for me to just enjoy the sweet presence of God. He died to save me from God’s wrath. I began thanking Him for my salvation—that He took that wrath for me. All the while, the light was sporadically shining and then disappearing.
Then I remembered something. A few weeks ago in the hallway across from my bedroom door, I had plugged in one of those little insect-catcher devices that looks like a night light and has a sticky side to catch flies. I wondered if the light flickering had anything to do with that. I got back up and looked. Then I actually laughed out loud at myself. Yep. I guess the dog had bumped the device, and it wasn’t sitting tightly in the outlet. What an anti-climactical experience to realize that the flickering was just the fly catcher flickering off and on!!!
I had thought it was God, and it was a fly- catcher. Palm to forehead. But then I thought again…
God is sovereign. Everything that happens has been filtered through His hand. So, yes, in a way, it was God. He WANTED me to think on those things that I was pondering. He WANTED me to remember His Holiness and my utter wretchedness before Him if I were not covered in the righteousness of Christ that was purchased for me on the cross.
Maybe I’m not so goofy after all.
What are you pondering?
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things,” (Philippians 4:8).
“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do,” (I Peter 1:15).
“For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life,”(I Thessalonians 4:7).
