Grope (Groping for God)
“Even if we only grope, only feel around, trying to find God, the promise is that we shall find Him. Sometime my life feels as if I’m just feeling around for a God whom I don’t see or experience. I’m groping in the dark. Even when we feel as if we are in darkness and are feeling around in the dark room of our lives, if we keep going the promise is that we shall find Him. Even when we are confused and struggle with doubt, if we keep up the struggle, the promise is that we shall find Him. Even when the world seems to be falling in on us, and injustice and oppression keep us down, if we keep seeking for the light, the promise is that we shall find Him. It’s not always easy. It can be a struggle. We need to remember that many holy women and men experienced years of darkness and dryness of soul.” (Deacon John Donaghy)
“I sometimes feel in my life as though I am groping for God. Those times when all seems dark and you know that God is around somewhere, you just can’t seem to find him in the darkness. Paul tells his listeners that indeed, God is not far from any one of us. It is sometimes very hard for us to remember that God is always near. I think that even during those times where we drift away from God, He remains near to us. It’s just that our backs are turned, or we’re just not looking for Him at all. And when we are seeking Him but just can’t seem to find Him, it is our lack of vision. So often we cannot see through our own woundedness. We can be blinded by our pain. But rest assured that God is always near. Sometimes you just gotta grope for Him.” (Gus Lloyd)
“God becomes powerless before human freedom; He cannot violate it since it flows from His own omnipotence. Certainly man was created by the will of God alone; but he cannot be deified [made Holy] by it alone. A single will for creation, but two for deification. A single will to raise up the image, but two to make the image into a likeness. The love of God for man is so great that it cannot constrain; for there is no love without respect. Divine will always will submit itself to gropings, to detours, even to revolts of human will to bring it to a free consent.” (Vladimir Lossky)
“Groping for God” We don’t often put those two words together: Groping and God. And yet that phrase is so descriptive of what we do in our faith journey…The best we can do is to grope for God in our darkness And the good news is that while we’re groping for God, God is searching for us, revealing Godself to us, becoming us, so that we might be able to know God more fully and completely in the Person of Jesus Christ.” (Angela Madden)
“They would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). Paul knew that the Athenians were searching for truth, so he explained that God had revealed Himself to mankind through nature and history so that we would know that He exists and would be without excuse (Rom. 1:20). Of course, man’s ideas about God are sometimes very different than who He actually is. Thankfully, we don’t have to rely on our faulty notions—we can truly know Him because He has revealed Himself to us through Christ.” (Charles F. Stanley)
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