Latest / Wilder Whispers Podcast / Behold His Beauty | Learning to Love Him Again

Transcript

Behold His Beauty | Learning to Love Him Again · Wilder Whispers Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friend, welcome to Wilder Whispers, a space where we slow down and listen for God's voice in the ordinary moments of life.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Shay Wooden, and I'm so glad you're here.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: We often expect God to speak through big moments, a sermon, a breakthrough, a perfectly quiet prayer time, and he does.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: But so often, he chooses quieter ways, in the middle of everyday life, in the unnoticed moments, in gentle whispers that invite us closer.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Each episode, I'll share one simple story and the quiet truth God revealed through it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not because it was extraordinary, but because he was present.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So wherever you are right now, take a breath, let's slow down, and listen together.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Last episode we talked about the fire of first love.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that fire doesn't die.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: It simply becomes buried beneath the ashes of a busy life.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: But that raises an important question.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: How does that fire begin to burn again?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: What rekindles love for God when our hearts have grown distracted?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: The answer might be simpler than we think.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Love grows where our attention rests.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: The things we look at the most, the things we think about the most, the things that capture our attention, those are the things that shape our hearts.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And whether we realize it or not, we spend our lives beholding something.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: We behold success, believing it will make us happy.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: We behold approval, hoping it will make us feel secure.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we even behold someone else's life through a screen and suddenly feel like we're falling behind.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: The scripture teaches something powerful.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: We become like the things we behold.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when our attention turns back to God, when we begin to behold his beauty again, something begins to change inside us.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Wonder returns.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Love awakens again.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what today's story is all about.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the easiest things to lose in our walk with God is wonder.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I was a little girl, I used to sit on the front pew at church with a small tape recorder in my lap.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can still picture that little tape recorder.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I would press the record button before the sermon started, and later that week I would sit in my room and listen to that sermon all over again.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes more than once.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I still had some of those recordings.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I loved hearing the word of God.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I loved church, and I loved God.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even as a child, there was something in my heart that wanted to live my life for Him.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: There was a simplicity to that kind of love, a kind of wonder.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: But as life went on, things began to change.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not my love for God.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, I wanted to serve Him even more.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: But life slowly filled up.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Marriage, illness, loss, raising a baby, responsibilities.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And before I realized it, my days were filled with important things, good things.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But looking back now, I can see something I couldn't see then.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere along the way, wonder had quietly faded.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not because I stopped loving God, but because life had become full of so many voices, so many responsibilities, so many things competing for my attention.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easy for that to happen.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because what captures our attention eventually shapes our hearts.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, without even realizing it, we stop looking at God with the same sense of wonder we once had.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And one line in particular has always stayed with me.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Replace the lamp of my first love.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a simple prayer, but it expresses something many of us feel at times.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: The desire for the fire of our love for God to burn brightly again.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways that fire is rekindled is when we begin to behold Him again.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And as I sat there thinking about that line, I felt the Lord gently whisper something in my heart.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: You become like what you behold.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how deeply that truth runs through Scripture.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you begin paying attention, you start to notice that the people who knew God most deeply all seem to understand something about beholding him.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: David understood it.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 27, he writes these words One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what David says.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: One thing, not many things, not a list of spiritual responsibilities, just one, to behold the beauty of the Lord.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: David understood that when our hearts are fixed on God, everything else begins to fall into its proper place.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we see that same idea again in the story of Mary and Martha.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: In Luke chapter 10, Martha's busy preparing and serving while Jesus is in their home.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the work she's doing isn't wrong.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's good.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: But in the middle of all that activity, Mary makes a different choice.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: She sits down at the feet of Jesus.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: She stops moving.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: She stops working.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And she simply gives him her attention.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: When Martha becomes frustrated and asks Jesus to correct Mary, Jesus responds with these words.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing is needed.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Mary understood something that many of us slowly forget as life becomes full.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the most important thing we can do is simply sit with him, to listen, to look at him, to be near him.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when we do, something begins to happen inside of us.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul describes it this way in 2 Corinthians 3.18.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Did you notice what Paul says there?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Transformation doesn't begin with effort, it begins with beholding.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: As we look at him, as we spend time in his presence, as our hearts learn to linger near him, we begin to change, little by little, from glory to glory.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is this you become like what you behold.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Scripture uses that word intentionally.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Behold.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not just look, not just glance, behold.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: To fix your attention on something, to take it in, to stay there long enough for it to begin shaping you.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when you begin to follow that idea through Scripture, you start to see something beautiful.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: We are invited to behold different aspects of who God is.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're invited to behold our God, not just what he does, but who he is.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: To behold the Lamb, who was slain for our sins, the one who gave everything for us.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: To behold our King, the one who holds all authority, nothing is outside of his rule.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: To behold the child, God-made flesh, not distant, but near.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And to behold the Son of Man, the one who walked among us, who understands, who sees, and who knows.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the more we behold him, the more something begins to change in us.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't become what we try harder to be.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: We become what we keep looking at.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's true, it raises an important question for all of us.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: What are we giving our attention to?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because the things we behold eventually begin shaping the people we become.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Over the years, I've tried to keep a simple phrase in my heart that reminds me how to return to that place with God.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Go low and linger long.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Go low, like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And linger long enough for your heart to become still in his presence.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we slow down long enough to truly behold him, wonder begins to return.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is, our hearts are always beholding something.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Every day our attention is pulled in a hundred different directions.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Our schedules, our responsibilities, our worries, even other people's lives through a screen.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And over time, all of those things slowly shape the way we see the world.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the way we see God.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: But Scripture gives us a beautiful invitation.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah 40, the prophet lifts his voice and says, Behold your God.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, look at him again.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Remember who he is, the God who comforts his people, the God whose word stands forever, the God who created the heavens and calls every star by name, the God who gives strength to the weary, the God who gently carries his people like a shepherd carries his lambs.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: When we begin to behold God this way, something begins to shift inside us.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wonder returns, and love awakens again.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So today I want to leave you with a simple invitation.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Take a little time to look at him again.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not to accomplish anything, not to check off another religious task, just to give him your attention, just to tell him you love him, just to worship and adore him.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because the beautiful truth is that God isn't distant from us.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's inviting us to come away with him.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to see our face.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to hear our voice.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not because he needs something from us, but because he knows that when we spend time with him, something begins to change inside us.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to become like him.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And when we come to him, we need to remember something important.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: When God looks at his children, his eyes are not filled with condemnation or disappointment.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: His eyes are filled with love.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're filled with mercy.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: The invitation to behold him is not an invitation into shame.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's an invitation into relationship.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe today the most important thing you can do is simply quiet the voice of the many so you can hear the voice of the one.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if you'd like, let's take a quiet moment right now and pray together.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us enough to invite us into your presence.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we don't have to chase after you because you're already near.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive us for the ways we've allowed so many other things to capture our attention.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for the ways our hearts have become distracted.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Today we turn our attention back to you.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Open our eyes to see your beauty again.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Help us behold who you truly are, the God who comforts, the God whose word stands forever, the God who gives strength to the weary.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Quiet the noise around us and the noise within us so we can hear your voice again.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And as we spend time in your presence, change us.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Transform us from the inside out, just as your word promises, so that when people see our lives, they see more of Jesus.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus we pray.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Job once said something that captures this beautifully.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: He said, My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes see you.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And in many ways, that's what happens when we slow down long enough to behold God again.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: What once felt distance becomes personal, wonder begins to return, and the fire of first love quietly begins to burn again.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we behold his beauty, our hearts remember why we loved him in the first place.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today's whisper to carry with you is this look at me again.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for spending this time with me on Wilder Whispers.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I hope today's story reminded you that God is closer than we often realize and that he's still speaking, even in the ordinary moments of life.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whispers are the language of closeness.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: They invite us to lean in.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Stay attentive.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: God is not far away.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's not silent, he's near, and he's speaking.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep listening.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is Wilder Whispers, and I'm Shay Wooden.