Experiencing God - Reconciliation 157

"Oh that today you would listen to God's voice, harden not your hearts, as your fathers did in the wilderness, when at Meriba and Massa, they challenged me and provoked me, even though they had seen all my good works." 
Psalm 95

I remember the time during my employment years when my work station was moved to a new location.  I was away for several weeks before the move and arrived back to work on a Monday morning to discover my new work location.  The location itself was excellent, but I remember being very disappointed with the new computer equipment that was assigned to me.  The resolution on the monitor was so bad that I had difficulty reading the fine print on my reports and worksheets.  And then, I began to experience difficulty with the computer system itself.  By Tuesday night, I was beginning to get angry at the situation.  On Wednesday morning, after making no headway with our computer technicians, I left a note to say that when the problems were fixed, to call me at home.  I was really acting out on my anger and frustration.
 
During my prayer time on Wednesday evening, I experienced a real absence of God, and a sense of isolation from everything.  

During this prayer time, I reflected on Psalm 95.  "Oh that today you would listen to God's voice, harden not your hearts, as your fathers did in the wilderness, when at Meriba and Massa, they challenged me and provoked me, even though they had seen all my good works." 

This prayer helped me to be aware of my own stubbornness of heart, my acting out in anger and frustration, and not surrendering life's events to God.  A question was posed to me.  "What is more important; the stubborn stance I was taking in respect to the things not going my way, or my relationship with a loving Father?  After some reflection on this, I chose my relationship with God, and asked for forgiveness and healing of my pride and stubbornness.  It was then that I again experienced God's presence. 

I was not planning to return to work until the problem with the equipment was resolved.  But I finally concluded that it was better to return then to remain isolated from God.  So I returned on Thursday morning to deal with the outstanding issues.

God resides within us.  Sin separates us from God.  It's not that God is absent.  He is always with us.  But sin prohibits us from accessing His gentle healing presence.  Prayer is the time we have to reflect on those obstacles within, whatever they may be, so that we may seek forgiveness, healing and reconciliation, and make a decision to turn away from the actions that have caused us difficulty.  As we do this, we are transformed into a new way of being, as God's healing love is infused within us.  This is the grace that follows reconciliation.

Often, this needs to be put into words and expressed before the healing can take place.  We need to hear; "I forgive you", and "welcome back".  

Reconciliation not only re-unites us with God, but with those in our community. In reconciliation, the obstacles that have separated us from loving relationships are broken down, and we are able to see again with new eyes.