Recently while flying at 30 thousand feet and viewing the vast, changing landscape below, the question crossed my mind as to whether I was closer to God at that altitude. After all, a number of Bible accounts tell about God’s mountain top revelations. However, the descriptives of being “closer to” or “further from” God speak to relationship rather than to physical proximity or awareness. A better question might be is God close, or can I be close to God?
Most, if not all of us, have been, or perhaps are now in a situation where God didn’t or doesn’t seem to show up. Grief? Loss? Addiction? Relationship chaos? Abandonment or betrayal? Financial stress? Errant children? Suffering some injustice? Illness? Or some difficult, lonely situation in which there was no sense of God’s presence? Consider Jacob, who exclaimed as he awoke to the fact that God was dealing with him in his struggling, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16). King David realized that he could never be free from God’s presence when he questioned, “Where can I go from your Spirit?” (Psalm 139)
Not everyone believes in God. However, reality is not dependent upon feelings or belief. Reality is what is true. Scripture clearly declares that God is present whether or not we believe or seek Him. Even though we may be unaware of Him, He is aware of us. ” God looks at the heart” (1Samuel 16:7). Nothing could be more personal than that!
Our unfamiliarity with God may be because our opportunities, resources, and physical and intellectual abilities enable us to meet our goals and material needs. The failure to recognize that God gives us “our daily bread,” results in the misunderstanding that we are not dependent upon His grace. Conversely, we are not invincible. We may have unfulfilled expectations and needs in which we believe a good and just God would intervene but hasn’t. Or we may fail to seek Him in a world which distracts from and even denies our fundamental reasons to live. Instead of enjoying life and God as part of His glorious creation, we follow appealing trends, fads, “enlightened” but misguided ideas, confusing theories, and distorted pleasures which exclude God. Therefore, we miss the point. We think life is all about us, but Scripture reminds us that we are created in God’s image and that the whole of God’s creation declares His glory (Psalm 19; Roman’s 1:18). We are meant to display God’s glory until the day all creation is restored and justice and goodness prevail. For now, God is working everywhere to redeem us and our circumstances.
Our poorly conceived ideas result from a disordered human spirit. We suffer from brokenness and generational failures to live and convey moral truth and godly principles. For proof of spiritual darkness, we need only to turn on the news or look at ourselves! But more important than our sin is God’s grace. We enter this world imperfect, self-absorbed, and struggling for individual identity which will never be complete apart from a relationship with our Creator who loves us enough to show Himself in the mysteries and majesty of His creation, speak to us through His Word, and reveal Himself in the moral Law and in the person and death of Christ. Entering humanity as Emmanuel, “God with us,” Christ has shown us our spiritual need while mercifully and lovingly paying the penalty for our sins so we could be healed and restored to a relationship with God. He has promised that his Spirit will never leave or forsake believers. (1Corinthians 3:16; John 14:.16-17).
God meets us wherever we are. When we look for him, He is there. King David knew that as he cried out in his brokenness, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crused in spirit (Psalm34:18).” Happily, being close to God doesn’t require flying high or climbing to great heights or doing great things to earn His favor. He will be found and will dwell with those who believe Him, seek Him, and welcome Christ. And as the old hymn proclaims, regardless of our spiritual state “He is Only a Prayer Away.”
Sweet Words from Maine 