Seeing God Amongst The Clouds

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

And we live in that period, the Son of Man, Jesus has risen from the dead.

Each of us are called to share the Good News about Jesus Christ.

The desires that arise from time to time to keep Jesus to ourselves is a cloud that does not allow us to truly be in a relationship with God

And our final cloud comes from chapter 5,

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.

Many people live a life terrified of God.

Sometimes this plays itself our in strange ways.

Like someone being petrified that they may say the wrong thing when praying to God.

Or as a child runs through the church, someone saying God will punish you for that one day.

There is an old song that goes something like this.

Be careful little hands what you do.

Be careful little hands what you do.

For the Father up above is looking down in love.

Be careful little hands what you do.

However many people seem to interpret like this.

Be careful little hands what you do.

Be careful little hands what you do.

For the Father up above WILL SQUASH YOU LIKE A BUG.

Be careful little hands what you do.

But our relationship with God is not one to be based on fear.

Listen to what God reveals to us our relationship is based on, from 1 John chapter 4 verse 16 to 18

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

I am not saying we should not have reverence for God.

Nor am I saying that we should ignore the cosequences of not following God.

But what I am saying is that we need to be careful that we don’t see God as only a God of judgement.

Someone once said what we reflect is often what we really believe about God.

And if we believe that God is only a God of judgement, then all that people will see is a God to be scared of.

But the truth is scripture reveals something far more revealing about God.

Scripture shows us that God is extremely generous with His love.

That what is most important to our relationship with Him, is simply the fact that God loves us.

And so another of the clouds that can impair our relationship with God is the cloud of fear.

We have seen today that people, time, invented ideas or stories of God, keeping Jesus to ourselves and fear are all clouds that can exist in our life.

They can impair how we see and how we relate to God.

Do you relate to any of these?

So what do we do about them?

The reality is we often can get rid of these clouds in our life.