God Comes Down

God Comes Down

Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth.

Psalm 113:5-6

Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence!

Isaiah 64:1

No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.

John 3:13

Members of a royal family rarely mingle with commoners. They may wave from the balcony of a palace, but you would never expect a king to spend time at the mall or move in next door or come over for coffee. So could we ever expect that the King of the universe would enter into our world? Could we be bold enough to ask that the King of heaven would come to earth and do a work in us and in this world that only he can do? That’s exactly what he wants us to ask him to do. No, he wants us to beg him to do it. He longs to hear us pray the prayer of Isaiah: “Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!”

What happens when God comes down? People change their minds about him, and their hearts warm up to him. We become bold for him and willing to suffer for him. We treasure him and enjoy him instead of taking him for granted. Our uncaring attitudes turn into passion. We can’t get enough of God’s Word, and we can’t stand to be at odds with other people. Our hearts are captured by spiritual things rather than the things of this world.

Many Christians are content to keep God at a safe distance, not expecting much from him and not longing for him. But God responds to heartfelt, desperate prayers for him to make his presence known in new ways in our lives. He wants us to pray for that—to pray that he will come down to us in a fresh way and do awesome things that only he can do!

DISCUSSION STARTERS

How does it make you feel when someone special or important comes to your school, your church, or your house?

Have you ever had a special sense of God’s presence? What was that like?

Why do you think God wants us to invite him to invade our world?