Some may balk when I suggest God gives us visions during meditation, but I have had one that was more real than anything I can ever explain. That’s why I firmly believe he does indeed do so. It was shortly after I had accepted Jesus in 1995 when God placed a vision upon me. More than a decade later, I was finally able to discern the meaning. In a lot of ways, 1Glories is a continuation of my responding to that vision.

Before I was a Christian, I pursued many means of filling the gap punched in my soul. Meditation was one of those. I have continued to meditate into my “new life,” doing so with scriptural prefacing. One night, I saw a vision of me in a guillotine as a saddened Jesus looked on. The blade came down and my head fell into a dark chasm below. No bloodshed whatsoever.

Years later, I started a blog called NoOtherRock (Isaiah 44:8) with no idea where it would go. It was simply a very sure feeling that it was something I had to do as I struggled with my own spirituality and keeping up with documenting devotional thoughts and responses. I chose to focus on a fairly old year-long devotional, J. Sidlow Baxter’s Awake, My Heart: Daily Devotional Studies for the Year.

The devotional came into my awareness at a time when I started to realize a few things about the vision I just described. First, Jesus has shed all the blood for my sins. The other realization was equally profound; that being, if you think and feel only with your head and not with your heart – as I was doing in trying to rationalize my Christianity – you’re not genuinely following Christ.

Devotions can stir and awake our souls

We too often are asleep in our Christian walks. Devotional study can help us wake up. Photo Credit: Nick Harris1 via Compfight cc

I struggled to keep up with the devotional, but the year was one of enormous Christian growth. I was shaped to think and consider myself in a new context in Christ.

Here are some of those key revelations.

  1. It’s never about your or me. It’s always about Him.
  2. Conforming to the ways of the world is terribly hard to avoid – but can be done
  3. The moment is now. Not yesterday. Not Tomorrow.
  4. God’s timing is amazing.
  5. Even the wicked can be used for God’s intent.
  6. I still have and always will have much to learn.
  7. Hope is for those not already living in His grace.
  8. I love you. This is not easy to do and it’s even harder to say. Some never say it. I never want a day where I don’t say it.