Have You Met The God Of Abraham? Part 1

 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Ex 3:6

I confess that most of the time when I read about Abraham's life and walk with God, I don't see it as anything special. Weird, yes, but not special. But thinking a little deeper, I realized he didn't have a book to read about God, like I do. God didn't introduce himself as "God of Abraham", because he was talking to the man himself. (I am the God of you? Not likely.) In fact, the Bible never accounts for God introducing Himself to Abram at all. Their first recorded interaction is a mission to an unknown.

So as they started out, God was not Abram's God. This is just my two cent, but I believe He became the God of Abraham. (After He changed the man's name). I will tell you why I see it so.

God tells Abram to move to another country - he goes. (Gen 12: 1, 4)
Whenever God promises something to him, he builds an altar and worships. (Gen 12:7-8, 13:3-4, 13:14-18)
And then after a debate of struggling faith, Abraham decides to believe God, and God counts it as righteousness... (Gen 15:6)

I find it amazing that this man had such clarity without reading the Bible, or any other books, for that matter; that he knew that it is safe to put his doubts before the Almighty. I read it (The Book) and I wish I had this clarity. I wish I could just know that it is God talking to me, and believe without wavering.

Now, by the time Moses first encounters The Lord, he already knows something about Him. Also, God is already God of Abraham. Maybe Moses was a little more difficult to talk to, and that's why he needs a formal introduction AND a burning bush. I guess he knows enough to cover his face.

By the time I met God, He was already God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God of Moses, David, Elijah, Elisha, and Daniel (and everybody else listed in Heb 11), not to mention the Father of the Son of God. And yet, even after knowing all of these stories, I need a formal introduction, Bible, a stack of other books that talk about the Bible, a struggling experience of fighting against God, a bunch of incredible spiritual people in my life --- and I still sometimes need a burning bush to come out of my hiding place when I mess up.

I had to ask myself: What am I missing? Why is this relationship with God so difficult? Why do I lose sight of His reality?
I realized that these people were unique. They can only inspire me to get to know God personally, like they did. But they can't teach me how to have a relationship with God. If anything, from their lives I can learn about the greatness and depth of God's love, and take it from there. I want to see how God loves me. How His love manifests in my life. I want to see how it changes me and how it makes me feel and respond.
I want to meet God on my own. I want to live my life according to Him, praising him along the way. And then maybe, somebody will see the God of Silvija, and recognize His love, and will want to experience it themselves. I want to know what it feels like to have the scary kind of faith that only God can start in us. But then I also want a new, better job, more time, a good camera, and sometimes ice cream. Some of those things can cloud the view of what is really important in life.

Here is what Paul wanted.

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Phlp 3:10-14 

What do you really want?

What do you want to know about God?

How will you ask Him about that?