Game Changer Week 4: Devotional Day 3

DAY 3 – Wednesday

Daily devotional

Read

Mark 9:2-6; Luke 1:8-12; Isaiah 6:1-5

Ask

Imagine you were present at the transfiguration. How do you think you might have responded?

Reflect

There is something in the encounter with heavenly beings that strikes terror in the heart of human beings. Perhaps it is our basic fear of the unknown. It is not every day that one meets a person glowing with other-worldly fierceness. How do you know what will happen next in the presence of such power? That confusion and terror is understandable.

But I think there is more to understand about why there is fear in these kinds of encounters. When you look across the scope of Scripture and the different examples of people seeing God or an angel (or Jesus in his glory), what you see is that something is revealed. The most obvious thing that is revealed is the heavenly realm, or a citizen of it. But what is more subtly revealed is something about the person who is seeing all of this. And usually it’s not something good.

When Isaiah sees the throne room of God, he says “Woe is me!” and acknowledges that his general sinfulness has been revealed. When Zechariah sees Gabriel in the temple his lack of faith is revealed. And when Peter sees Jesus in his full glory, he’s revealed for the short-sighted goofball he is (more on that later).

What’s going on here? C.S. Lewis put it this way, “The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object.” In other words, the bright light of heaven either invites us into embrace with God or to see our own brokenness. Either are valid reactions, because the light of heaven strips our soul naked.

As you imagine yourself at the transfiguration, imagine that you are stripped bare of pretense in the light of Christ’s glory. Would you feel rapture, or would you feel shame? In your honest reflection, invite God to see your soul and do his work.