Devotionals for the Heart: Vision

To See the Lord
A devotional by Karen Marstaller

“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”– Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

Vision. We want to see things with our own eyes before we accept the truth. Even then, we are often quite skeptical about something that is hard to understand.

Other translations of the Bible offer the word revelation in place of the word vision. In modern days, the two words are closely related. We think of revelation as a personal message, while a vision is a personal image. Both ideas go hand-in-hand.

The sobering news is that when we stop seeing visions, or block revealed messages from the Lord, we begin to die a little inside. It’s a slow, painful loss of hope in God.

God’s Word (The Holy Bible), is full of instances where God reveals Himself to man. When we grow tired of hearing the world’s bleak news of the day, we can turn to our copy of God’s Word and stand beside the people who witnessed the very essence of God with their own eyes.

Starting in Genesis, God recorded Adam and Eve’s relationship with their Creator. Genesis 3 tells us that God walked in the Garden of Eden with them in the evening, but then they sinned, disobeyed His plan, and found themselves hiding from their God. He had shaped them both with His very own hands (Genesis 2) and had a personal interest in them. They walked and talked with Him in the Garden of Eden. What a joyful existence that must have been!

Then in Exodus 33:18-23, Moses, the great leader of God’s people, asked to see God’s glory. God agreed to his request with one exception: “You cannot see my face” (Exodus 33:20 ESV). What a far cry from the side-by-side relationship Adam and Eve used to enjoy! But God told Moses in Exodus 33:22 that as His glory passed by, God would hide Moses in the cleft of a rock, and protect him with His hand. In the very next verse (Exodus 33:23) God promised Moses that he could look at God’s back. What a holy God we see in this image! Moses, a simple human being, could not see God’s face and survive. But God graciously allowed him a brief glimpse of the God Moses followed, and Moses lived to tell about it.

Skipping ahead to the book of Isaiah who was a mighty prophet of God, we see a simple man who was given a most amazing vision from the Lord. Let’s read about it in Isaiah 6:1 (ESV): “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”

Then Isaiah reports in Isaiah 6:5 (ESV): “…Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

From there we move to the very last book of the Bible, where we have the privilege to stand beside the Apostle John, as he shares the revelation given to him on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9 ESV). John, like Adam and Eve, had walked and talked with the Lord Jesus, learning from Him about the Heavenly Father. Here, in Revelation, John describes what he saw and heard in Heaven as he was led by the Holy Spirit (Revelation 1:10). And as we read John’s words that were inspired by God, we, too, fall to our knees at the holiness of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But Jesus who walked the earth so many years earlier, reached out His hand to His beloved disciple to raise him to his feet. He tells him, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17b-18 ESV).

Oh, to hear God’s voice and to see His face! Until that day when we reach our heavenly home, we have the privilege of standing in the shoes of those who have gone before us. All we have to do is open our Bible. We can soak in the blessed visions and revelations God has recorded. And whether we have been granted a personal vision or not, we can all bask in the holiness of our living God who has conquered death and who gives life to all who seek His face.

Let’s Pray: Dear Lord, mighty God of Heaven and Earth, we worship You. Thank You for stirring us with visions and revelations about You and Your Son, Jesus Christ. It is in His Name that we bow to worship and to pray. Amen.

Song of Reflection: “He Hideth My Soul” (song) by BESY Choir. Listen to it here.

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Author Bio:

Karen Marstaller is a retired high school teacher who spent most of her career challenging creative students to write. Her heart is for her readers. 

She writes to encourage them, to make them laugh, to show them that life is a beautiful journey, and regardless of their past, to show them that there is joy ahead if they will just keep looking.

Karen and her husband live in central Texas in a sweet little home that they completely remodeled. They enjoy spending time with their family, which includes seven precious grandchildren.

Most of all, Karen writes in obedience to the command to love your neighbor, to offer a cup of water to those who are dying of thirst, and to comfort others with the comfort she has received.

You can reach Karen by emailing her at this address: klmarstaller@gmail.com