Hello friends, welcome to Embolden. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Welcome to day three of 30 Days of Giving Glory to our Almighty God. Today's podcast was inspired by Acts 7, 55.
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And please join me in this prayer today. Lord, there are so many times you quietly reveal yourself to me. At times I miss the chance to see and glorify you, while other times I realize the moment is so very special.
Thank you for finding ways to communicate with me and showing me your full glory. Now, each time I go play golf, which I'm fairly new at and definitely very terrible at, I say a prayer thanking God for the opportunity to enjoy this thing called creation. I ask him to help me remember that I quote get to play golf rather than it being some awful task that I'm being dragged into. Because if you've ever tried learning something new, you know there's a steep learning curve which can bring you to the point of wondering why you ever embarked on the journey in the first place.
The other day, not only did God bless me with meeting three new golf friends, but he revealed himself to us on the second whole of the course and it gave me the opportunity to proclaim his glory to these strangers. At the green of the first hole, I noticed two large hawks hopping along the ground near the tee for the second hole. I pointed it out to my new friends and we interrupted our putting to stop and notice the unusual sight. And then when we had finished at that hole, we drove over to that next tee.
When we all arrived, I looked over to a post that was maybe about four yards away and their sitting majestically was one of the large hawks. It was at a minimum two and a half feet tall, just sitting and watching us. I have never been that close to a wild hawk before because they're so skittish. I gasped and pointed to the hawk and we all stood there and stared.
That hawk was stunning, hence slightly scary looking with its large beak and talons. And I realized God was reminding me of my prayer, to not take playing golf too seriously that I don't notice the beauty of his creation. I found myself amongst these strangers crying out loud, glory to God, and then he flew off. Matthew 7 says, ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you. And you know friends, I certainly hope I am never in the situation like the disciples Stephen from our first verse. He was being stoned to death. In his terrible demise, God helped him take his eyes off the being and suffering and lifted them up to the glorious scene of God and Jesus.
It doesn't matter if you are just going through the motions of life or you found yourself in a stressful, painful situation. God will reveal himself to you. Seek him and you will find him and then glorify him. Have a great day.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Abolden Podcast. Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode and check out my blog at embolden.net.