"When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." (Genesis 28:16)
Have you ever had the experience of buying a particular thing and then suddenly you start seeing it all over the place. You buy a red car and suddenly you begin to see that type of car on the road everywhere you look. Parents of new babies suddenly start seeing babies, baby stuff and daycares all over the place. Now, it is not that those things haven't been there all along, it is only that you just became aware of them.
To be aware is to know and be cognizant of what is present or going on. It is being able to discern what is in your surrounding. It is a perception of something that is ongoing. Jacob had arrived at this place, turn the stone into a pillow and has gone to sleep totally unaware that much God-activity was going on there and that God was there to communicate with him. He felt it was an ordinary place. He was totally unaware of the presence of God. It wasn't until he woke up from his sleep that he realized that he was in a sacred place. He became aware.
Just like Jacob, there are many things in our lives that to us look ordinary. Many circumstances, chance encounters, events, people, places and situations in which we find ourselves that show no hint of a God-presence but which truly are saturated with God, but which we are unaware of. That new friend, that coincidental meeting, that church, that new neighborhood etc.
It is very easy to miss spiritual things. The natural is usually first to claim the first place in our awareness. The ordinary look of things can cause us to miss the days of God's visitation. Things God has orchestrated for our good can all be forfeited because we fail to recognize that it was His hand. This is reason why one of the top prayers we should pray is for God Himself to open the eyes of our hearts so that we can see things that we would otherwise miss.
According to the Bible, there is a lot God is doing in you and around you right now. There are blessings He has deposited in your life but which are currently invisible to your physical eye. In fact, everything you need for life and godliness is already around you waiting to be recognized. All the answers to your questions are around you. The full provision for your life are already there with you but the only way you can tap into them is through awareness.
So pray today for God to increase your awareness of spiritual things. Ask Him to show you what He's provided and where they are located. Pray the prayer of Paul or the Ephesians church.
" For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.." ( Eph 1:15-18)
Pray this prayer often. Ask God to increase your awareness of spiritual things. Then maybe concerning certain situations and events of your life that look ordinary, when God opens your awareness, you will exclaim like Jacob, "the Lord is in this place but I wasn't aware of it"
Decision of the Day
I want to be aware of spiritual things. I want to see God wherever He is at work. I will pray this prayer of Paul for myself continually and God will open my understanding to see things I easily missed. He will make me more aware of His workings in and around me.
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