Personal Encounter: The Weight of Glory

“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.” (Psalms 42:7)

If there was one thing I could impart to others, it would be the limitless passion and power of God’s love for us,  the profound, world-changing power of His affection for you, His passion for you, His relentless desire for your peace, joy, and wholeness. He is always for you and always on your side.

I was on a particularly difficult business trip and had just knelt to pray. Suddenly, I felt the presence of the Lord, the “weight of glory” pressing down on me. I was scarcely able to breathe. His presence was like a current of electrified warm honey running through me.

This narrative describes the moment:

I am undone. I am overwhelmed by your love. I cannot find words to express the depth, width, breadth, and height of your love for me. Words fail me. Emotion pours over me like a waterfall. Every word is swept away by the rushing tide of your passion, knocking me down. Tears wet my face, my tongue is silenced in breathlessness, I await recovery from your comfort and strength.

Your compassion, patience, love, and kindness for me surpass my ability to tell the story. The enormity of You swallows up the smallness of me, that feeble, fragile, flawed “me” that dares not raise his face to behold Your power and presence. I bow my head and close my mouth in Your presence, awestruck and humbled in Your glory.

You are faithful and true in all Your ways, Father. You are strength in my weakness, the morning sun in my darkest moments, and my radiant hope for a tomorrow that is better than today. I am tempted to grieve my failures, except that they are missing from me, swept away by Your flood of forgiveness and forgetfulness; gone, forever! Forgiven and forgotten. All that remains is You.

I can’t breathe, so heavy is Your hand upon me. Relieve me, Father, of Your divine presence, that I might live to tell the story of Your great love and care. Like the sweep of the wind and the torrent of the flood, Your power flows over me.

The more I get to know You, the fewer words I find to describe You… until there is nothing left at all except to bow my head in silent witness of You. Eternity will not suffice to tell of Your love for us who call you Father. 

My heartfelt satisfaction and fullness for Him are almost more than I can bear. I do not know the full height and breadth and depth of this sweet communion. I bring so very little to this union; it’s just Him holding me.

Prayer

I cannot fathom the greatness of You. You are beyond every description, every limited adjective, every human understanding of You. Greater than all my words, all my thoughts, all my greatest dreams of You. You are mine and I am Yours. Forever.