“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
Whether alone or in a crowd, have you ever wondered where God is? Despite God reminding us throughout scripture that He is in fact with us and will never leave us, we still have our doubts. I’m not sure how it came about, but during a recent worship service I started thinking about the presence of God. If I had to guess, I would assume that Matthew 28:20 was one of the texts used in the sermon. In any event, I’ve been pondering our failure to recognize the presence of God in our lives. I don’t know about you but, I certainly have a tendency to take it for granted and, therefore, fail to recognize it or rely on it when I should. As I’ve considered this problem, there seem to be four primary reasons that we fail to recognize God’s presence in our lives: ignorance, immaturity, impediments and refusal.
Ignorance
I took a class in junior high that provided me with insight that has been very useful in my adult life. One of the two ladies teaching the class would repeatedly say “Believe a half of what you see, a quarter of what you read and very little of what you hear.” In a culture that tends to be fairly self-centered with the concept of relative truth on the rise, it is becoming harder and harder to manage spiritual matters. More specifically, if we can’t examine something with our physical senses or prove it scientifically, we reject it. And there’s the rub. God tells us in Exodus 33:20 that we cannot look on the face of God and live. If we operate on the assumption that we only accept what we can evaluate based on our senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing and God tells us that we cannot see His face and live, we have an insurmountable problem in we are relying on the wrong skill sets. Or as my teacher would say, just because we don’t observe God with our eyes, does not mean that He is not there. It is only when we combine our intellect with our souls that we are able to detect the presence of God. With our intellect we study God’s word, understand His character and remember His promises; with our souls, we have faith and recognize God through the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
Immaturity
One step above ignorance is immaturity. If we do not train ourselves to look for God and recognize His presence in our lives, we will miss Him. Romans 5:3-5 and passages like it speak to the training we receive through trials. However, if we refuse to be trained by those circumstances and fail to put effort into our relationship with God through prayer and study of God’s word, we remain immature and fail to see that God is present with us and working for our good. However, when we seek God and allow Him to work in our lives to mature us, and train ourselves to look for God at work, we more readily recognize His presence and His help. As obvious as it may seem, it has taken many years and many trials for me come to the understanding.
Impediments
A helpful feature of a GPS system is the ability to re-center the map. It allows the driver to refocus on the road in front of them. Busyness of life and the various stresses that arise in the course of our lives may take our focus off of God and thereby impede our recognition of God’s presence in our lives. However, a major impediment that I see in many is the emotional response to a situation. For others of us, symptoms of our illness and the medications to relieve them make thinking clearly difficult. So many times what is needed is to step back and refocus looking at the bigger picture in light of eternity. Just as God’s mercies are new every morning, so must our resolve to seek Him above all else if we are to recognize His presence, His work in our lives and those mercies that He has in store for us.
Refusal
Whether or not we chose to admit it, the problem may be that we reject the notion that God has anything to do with our trials. Romans 8:28 tells us “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” While we readily accept this scripture in the good times, it is a much different thing to act
on it with faith in the midst of significant trials. Consequently, we see people refuse to acknowledge God’s presence, wisdom and activity in circumstance that cause significant stress or grief. Sometimes it is a lapse due to doubt that must be overcome with truth, but too often people completely walk away from God because they fail to recognize that God is with them and working on their behalf in the dark times. In this case, the action is more akin to snubbing God rather than a failure to recognize His presence. It is a rejection of His truth, His wisdom, His promises, His love and His comfort.
Reality
Personally, it was certainly easy to recognize God’s presence: when I accepted Christ as my savior, at my wedding, at the birth and baptisms of our daughters, at our daughter’s wedding, at the births and dedications of our grandsons and in His guidance to move us from Tennessee to Indiana. As difficult as it was due to the loss, I felt God’s presence in the deaths of three of our four parents, various grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends having lived relatively normal lifespans and are now abiding with our Lord. Having been trained by trials, I can even look back and see God’s presence: on a night long ago when an impaired driver hit the van several of us were riding in causing the untimely death of our friend; in the emergency room with our daughter who had totaled a car; through various tests and surgeries related to my illness; job losses that my I and my wife have experienced and a myriad of other trials that have occurred in my lifetime. God has proven faithful time and time again to be present with me and with those whom I love because their hope is in Him.
If you have put your hope in Christ, the same is true for you no matter what you face. God is with you in: your home, your office, the doctor’s office, the hospital, the rehab center, the counseling office, the courtroom, the nursing home, the funeral home, the cemetery, your troubles, grief and your difficult or broken relationships. God is with you; look for Him; trust Him; rely on Him; accept His wisdom, comfort and peace; and allow Him to work in and through you in every circumstance of life.