Influencers Weekly Devotional
Kissing the Hand of God
by
Rocky Fleming
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1-3, ESV) A while back I came to realize the selfish course my prayers had taken. Oh I could go there with the intense need I had at the time to pray through some difficult things revolving around my life. God was my Guide as I cried out to Him for His comfort, His insight and for His leadership. I needed His wisdom and I cried out for it. So, I have that excuse if I need it. But, the mistake I made was I stayed too long in that need, and it became a narrow focus on me, rather than Him. Do you ever find yourself doing this? Do you realize that by staying too long in self-focused prayer, you will tend to bring God down to your level of understanding, and think of His abilities to determine solutions to lead you out of your trials are limited to what you think you need? We ask God to see things our way when in fact we need to begin looking at things, even our trials, through His point of view. God was able to help me see this, and this is why I was able to see that my selfish self-focused prayers had taken my eyes off His Majesty. How could I get my perspective back of what He can do was my pursuit? I would like to share what I’ve done about it, how it has helped me, and how it will help you no matter if you are in a trial, or will be in one, or just need to get a right perspective about the King of the Universe. I have discovered since being a young boy that there is something mystical and majestic about the nighttime sky, especially when the stars and moon are brightest. When I spend time just looking into it, and praying, and contemplating the depth and breadth of God’s visible creation, I go to a place in my perspective where I need to be. God becomes more of who He should be in my perspective, and I go to where I need to be in viewing myself. My time under God’s beautiful creation opens these things up to me, and it always has when I take the time to go look …. really look. With reference to that opportunity, my wife and I are blessed by having a little country farm in a very rural setting that we use for restoration and ministry purposes. It has no competing lights for the nighttime sky, so it really comes alive at night. When I go out to view it several times a night before going to bed, the light I see comes only from the stars and moon. When we go to our farm, at the top of my list is to go outside at night and be ministered to by the Lord in this place of worship. Under the nighttime sky, I have a magnificent cathedral of beauty, and this causes praise to erupt from my heart and mouth to my Creator. I take the time and look deeply into it and see His handiwork. The stars, the planets, the Moon, comets at times, and then meteors that have traveled from only He knows where and for how long, are seen falling from the sky. Taking time to look at these things teaches me about a Creator who has given me eyes to see, and a heart to appreciate it. God speaks to me in this place. He communicates to me in ways that I cannot find words to describe. I see His work, and I feel His love as He invites me to draw near to Him in His throne room. I realize what is out there is beyond what I can see with my limited eyesight. Even the most powerful telescopes that open the Universe to us can see only a very small fraction of what is there. I also understand that God Himself is more than I can see and understand. Like God, the Universe He created is more complex and more elaborate, and more, and more and more … than I can know. Like the Universe, God Himself is more than I can know and understand about Him. But, He has allowed me to get to know Him, which will be an eternal process for me, and this getting to know Him begins in this lifetime. Jesus, the Son, opened the door and invited me into His family, and in doing so I get to know better the Father. He made it possible for me. The Holy Spirit has this same mission for me every day, as He walks with me and is always teaching me that there is more, and I need to discover it. It is when I get too self-focused that I begin to reduce my intake of the feast God has given to me to mere bites, rather than allow the Holy Spirit to enlarge my appetite and dig in to what awaits me. Jesus gave a similar illustration when He said that He is the Living Water, and once we have tasted this Water, we will never be satisfied with the other. When I take the time to look at God’s creation and allow it to speak to my heart about Who formed it in His mind and then spoke it into being, I take a deep, deep drink of this Living Water. Have you ever been really thirsty and the drink you take to satisfy this thirst reaches a need that wasn’t just a normal desire? It is deep, it is nurturing, and it is magnificent. That is the way I would try to describe how I feel when I drink in the Living Water through the ladle that God gives me to drink from as I consider His creation. It is deep, it is nurturing and it is magnificent. I share my life and insight with you for one reason. I want you to find this same thing if you have not. What has been given to me in understanding God and myself better by taking time with Him to really look at His creation needs to be shared. I am not to hoard it to myself. It is a testimony about God and His love for us. What a shameful thing it would be to keep this to myself when there are so many stressed out, needful men who want the perspective of God that elevates their perspective beyond their fears, or problems, or limited thinking. This is where I find this needed perspective, and I want you to find it as well. Therefore, do yourself a favor. Go outside at night and look. Go worship. Go praise your Creator and King. He is waiting for you in this cathedral of hope that is found as close as your back yard. This week my wife observed something about me and she wanted to know what was happening. You see, I generally get up from TV several times at night especially during commercials, and go outside and simply look up in the sky. I just stand there and look up, often with outstretched arms. She asked me why I did this and what I was doing? Was I disturbed about something? I answered her questions by asking her if she remembered my dog, Buck. She said she did, but asked what that had to do with answering her question? I reminded her that Buck considered himself my dog, and he had bonded with me. He was a Yellow Lab that I raised from a pup, and it was clear to everyone that Buck saw me as his master. Now Buck had a peculiar habit that reminded me of myself, and it was this peculiarity that I was referencing when I answered my wife's question. You see, when I walked with Buck I would often remove his leash and allow him to run without a restraint. He loved the freedom and you could see it in his face. But, he would not get out of sight of me. After he would run off from me several yards, within a few minutes he would return to me and lick my hand. After he licked my hand, he would run off and then repeat the process again. He did it often in our walk together, and I understood that Buck loved his freedom, but he wanted to stay in touch with his master and never be far from me. It made him feel secure and connected to me, even while enjoying that freedom. Using this illustration to answer her question, I told my wife that I am like Buck. The reason I go outside at night even only for a moment is to look at God's creation…. and kiss the hand of my Master.