Meeting God in His Word

I met Jesus when I was 19. I didn’t know Him when I was in grade school, when my parents were divorcing, when I went through the craziness of high school, or when I was making terrible relationship choices. I met Him through a group of friends in a park in Fortuna, CA. Since I didn’t grow up in church, I didn’t have a foundation for who He is. I just knew I had never felt what I felt when I first met Him and I wanted to know more.

As a fresh new believer in Jesus with a hunger to know Him more, I opened a Bible I found in the house. It was a King James Version, and I didn’t understand it. I didn't understand meeting God was possible in Bible. I thought it was just a bunch of stories. But I knew the other followers of Christ around me read the Bible, so I thought that was what I was supposed to do. I opened it up to Genesis 1:1 and started to read. When I was 19 years old, I met Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham, Lot (and his daughters, ew!), and David. It wasn’t until I was much older that I started to actually UNDERSTAND the Bible.

His Word leads us to who He is. And He is Beautiful.

Encouraging myself and meeting God in Scripture

Now, over 25 years later, I have learned to encourage myself with God’s Word. The Bible is a huge part of that process. I want to share something so cool in Psalm 138 which has been fascinating me and giving me strength for the past few weeks. Here are the first three verses of Psalm 138 in the Amplified:

I will give You thanks with all my heart;

I sing praises to You before the [pagan] gods.

I will bow down [in worship] toward Your holy temple

And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth;

For You have magnified Your word together with Your name.

On the day I called, You answered me;

And You made me bold and confident with [renewed] strength in my life.

Here is the same three verses in The Passion Translation:

I thank you, Lord, and with all the passion of my heart

I worship you in the presence of angels!

Heaven’s mighty ones will hear my voice

as I sing my loving praise to you.

I bow down before your divine presence

and bring you my deepest worship

as I experience your tender love and your living truth.

For your Word and the fame of your name

have been magnified above all else!

At the very moment I called out to you, you answered me!

You strengthened me deep within my soul

and breathed fresh courage into me.

Gratitude, Worship, and Getting Strength from His Nature

First, we approach the Lord with gratitude. This keeps our hearts from trying to create transactions with God. We start with thankfulness, and we thank God from a passionate heart. We worship Him, and we don’t care who hears us. Next, the scripture leads us to bow down before Him in worship. We all worship something because it’s the way God created us. We worship the world, or self, or God, or money, or things. We worship something. I choose to worship God, for He is the one who created everything I see and everything I don’t see. Seeing His truth and love for me sends me to worship Him.

The second part of verse two is currently one of my favorite parts. God’s Word and His Name have been “magnified” above all else. When I looked up the word that’s translated as magnified, I found the Hebrew word that’s transliterated “gadal.” It means to grow, to become great or important, to magnify, to do great things.  If you click the link and scroll down to the Strongs Definition, you’ll see gadal is a primitive root which means “Properly, to twist” and it carries the meaning to cause something to become large, excellent, to twist or twine in order to make strong.

God’s Word and God’s Name twisted together to become strong and mighty, magnified above all else. Something we can hold onto. Think about the attributes of God’s Word. It’s living, active, and filled with power (Hebrews 4:12). It doesn’t return to God without accomplishing its purposes (Isaiah 55). His Word contains within itself the power to cause itself to come to pass. God’s Word is creative. He speaks, and things happen! Just read Genesis 1 and 2. Now the attributes of God’s name. His is the Name above all other Names. Google the names of God and you will find He is the God who provides, heals, sees, and is all-sufficient. He is all-powerful, he is our banner, and He is the One Who Sanctifies. He is our Peace, our Righteousness, and our Shepherd. Those descriptions barely scratch the surface of Who He is.

When we regard His Name and His Word twisted together to become magnified as stronger than anything else, there is an invitation to grab hold of it. In the next verse, the psalmist is in need and calls out to God. He describes being in worship with a thankful heart, and when he goes through something difficult, as we often do, he grabbed ahold of the Name of God and the Word of God, and God answered him. He received strength deep within his soul from the Name and Word of God, and God breathed fresh courage into him.

What a beautiful picture. A thankful heart of passion giving God his deepest worship. We make following God complicated, but it really isn’t that complicated. We can open our mouths and thank God anytime, anywhere, and it’s free.

God, Thank You for my life.

Thank You for breath in my lungs.

Thank You for my family, my children, my husband, my parents. We aren’t perfect, but You love us still.

Thank You for my job.

Thank You for the gifts and talents You placed within me. The ones I know about, and the ones that haven’t been revealed to me yet.

Thank You for placing me here in this moment.

Thank You that where I am isn’t the end. You have more for me.

Thank You for Your Word that I can come to when I’m feeling down, and I will find encouragement and strength.

Thank You that when I am feeling my weakest, You come in and meet me with Your strength.

Thank You that You will never abandon me, even when I abandon you.

Thank You that You are Faithful, even when I have no hope or faith left.

Lord, Thank You for saving my life. I could have been dead more than once, but You saved me.

Once thankfulness starts flowing out of your mouth, it’s incredible how easily it comes. Our hearts become passionate for God again, and we feel His love for us as we remind ourselves of all He has done. Once you feel a stirring inside you, lean into it. Don’t be satisfied with the first flame, but keep stoking it until it’s a burning fire. Digging into scripture helps me to fuel that flame day after day and keep it going. There are so many nuggets to find in there.

It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. (Proverbs 25:2 ESV)

I can’t cultivate a thankful heart for you, only you can do it. I can’t stir up passion in your heart for God, that’s something you have to do for yourself. I can’t strengthen you when you are feeling down, but I can lead you to the One who can. His Word and His Holy Spirit will lead you, spark curiosity inside you, and help you to dive in.

Closing Prayer

Lord, Thank You for bringing this beautiful nugget of truth to the surface for us to grab onto. Thank You for the power of Your Word and the power of Your Name, twisted together into something strong and growing and magnified so we can grab hold of it and gain strength from it. Help us remember to grab hold of it when we feel like we are sinking. Help us remember to lean on You and to stop relying on ourselves or our own understanding. Thank You for loving us and believing in us so much. We want to know You, God, so Thank You for responding to our hearts turning towards You. I pray that You would pour your love out upon every person who reads this, and they would have an encounter with Your Heart for them. I pray each one will receive a fresh revelation of how much You love them. I pray each one will respond with thankfulness and respond with praise and worship.

If you were encouraged, I would love to hear about it, so please leave a comment. They encourage me to keep encouraging you! As always, if you want to lean more about how to work with God to shape your beliefs about Him and yourself, take a look at my book Belief Rehab: You Are Enough.