Dear Lilies,
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking. He said to me, “Son man, stand up on your feet that I may speak to you.” As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. Ezekiel 1:28-2:1&2
Last week, I started attending a Precept Bible study. I was super excited, not only to get to learn more about God’s word in depth, verse by verse, or to have fellowship with other believers, but that we were going to be studying the book of Ezekiel. If any of you have read, or started to read this book, you will understand why I was thrilled to have some “study helps”, not to mention the accountability of a group to learn about this powerful book. As the Bible study leader pointed out to us on Thursday, Ezekiel uses the word “like” 19 times just in the first chapter, desperately trying to describe to us what this Glory looked like, but it is impossible to express in earthly words.
Though thinking about what Ezekiel describes is mind-boggling and humbling, the response Ezekiel has when he encounters the Glory of the LORD has remained at the forefront of my mind ever since I read it.
He writes, “When I saw it [the Glory of the LORD], I fell facedown.” Or in the NASB translation, “I fell on my face” Ezekiel 1:28
In the presence of the Glory of the LORD, Ezekiel was overwhelmed. His only possible response?
A faceplant.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed? Let me answer that for you. Yes. Oh, it’s Monday, by the way.
What does it feel like when you are overwhelmed?
The walls around you feel thick. Everything and everyone is blown out of proportion (but it seems real). Your head is spinning. You feel small. Everything else is massive. Your problems are bigger than life. It’s just too much. You feel inescapably overcome. Defeated. Helpless. All you want to do is just fall on your face.
That same feeling of being overcome and helpless in our own might, is how the Glory of the LORD should make us feel.
Overwhelmed.
The good news? This is not a foreign or abstract emotion or state of being. We all know what it is like to be overwhelmed.
So, how do we translate our earthly overwhelmed hearts to hearts overwhelmed by the Glory of the LORD, and nothing else?
To answer this question, we need to understand why we feel overwhelmed in the first place. How does the state of being overwhelmed come upon us?
Picture this: It is 1 p.m. on a gorgeous (yet frightfully freezing) Monday in January. You are sitting outside on a park bench eating your usual lunchtime respite – the faithful PB&J. The sun in shining, the birds chirping, the wind providing just the right breeze to softly blow the leaves across the pavement. Life is good.
3 p.m. the same day: You come home to find a note from your mom telling you she has left. She and your dad have been having marital issues for years now, and she cannot handle it anymore. They are getting a divorce. She is moving to Ireland to live with her sister. You also find out that the reason why you look nothing like your brother is because she was adopted. He was from a relationship your dad had in college, and the mother died in childbirth. As you sit down, trying to soak it all in, your phone vibrates with a email from your boss telling you that she is so sorry, but your position is being replaced by a software now available. She apologizes for not telling you earlier, but you need to leave by next week.
3:23 p.m.: This is the worst day of your life.
What happened between 1 p.m. and 3:23 p.m. ? You learned about those terrible, unfortunate events. Now that you know these things, there is no way to erase that knowledge. Even if they turned out to all be a lie, for at least a period of time, you were overwhelmed by what you learned, and there is absolutely no way to change or reverse that.
The bottom line?
It is impossible to be overwhelmed by something or someone who we don’t know.
I went into that whole analogy above because I think it is helpful to really help us grasp this concept in the scope of our everyday lives.
Back to our question that led us to this extended analogy: How do we translate our earthly overwhelmed hearts to hearts overwhelmed by the Glory of the LORD, and nothing else?
By knowing God. By learning about Him. By reading His Word and studying His Truths.
Friends, if we want to be overwhelmed by the presence of the LORD God Almighty, we must know him. We must learn about Him. The more we learn about Him, the better we get to know Him and the more we become overwhelmed by His Glory.
This Truth is so comforting to me because it gives me hope and something to work on everyday. When I feel overwhelmed by daily circumstances in my life, it reminds me of what I really can and should be overwhelmed about. Not the fact that my car won’t start, I spilled my coffee all down my white shirt and my essay is due tat midnight, but that our God is AWESOME and His Glory is unfathomable.
So I encourage you:
Get to know the One who can take your overwhelmed heart and turn it into a heart overwhelmed with His Glory
Read His Word
“I am the bread of life” John 6:48
Talk to Him
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12
Take a walk and admire his artistry
“The heavens declare the Glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 19:1
And every once in a while, take a face plant. He is there to pick us back up.
“Though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.” Psalm 37:24
In His Love and Truth,
Sarah