"DEAR GOD, YOU SURE DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE ALIVE" - Day 41

Day 41 – omnipresent  

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  –the PSALMIST

I told you a few days ago that Mary Catherine and Allison, my daughters, attended college away from home. I also related how much I missed seeing them around the house during those years. But in many ways I was never apart from them. Every campus course and event they participated in was at my expense. Each hour, therefore, they lived and breathed in the shadow of my influence. Before they left home, I tried to instill in them some good habits. So when they acted in love, spoke honestly, worked diligently, or smiled frequently, they were giving further testimony to my continued presence with them. Of course, there were two other ways I could be with them. I could call them on their cell phones or travel to see them in person.

In a grander, more glorious way, God is always with us. He, too, has given us ever-present benefits. The universe around us and the breath inside us are God’s gifts to us. Every moment of our lives, therefore, we live and move within the shadow of His influence. Furthermore, the Argument from Human Characteristics makes it clear that God has instilled within us a little of His own love, a portion of His own goodness, and a sense of His own morality. He has placed a fraction of His divine nature within us, and it is a futile exercise to try to escape it completely. In this sense, too, He is forever with us. But there is even more! As a Christian, I believe that God has taken the initiative and has come to visit me in person. And I also believe, through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, that his Spirit lives within me. When he said, “I am always with you,” I believe he meant it. He is ever-present in my heart. ¹

Whether or not you believe that Jesus is God’s supreme revelation, you still can proclaim the omnipresence of God. He speaks to you every day in the universe around you. He shouts to you each hour through His Moral Law. He impacts you every minute by way of the positive characteristics He has put in you. And every second you take a breath, He touches you with His life-giving power.

There are those who have raised the question, “Is Anybody there?” My reply to them is this: “Yes, much closer than you realize.” Oh, that we may have “eyes to see and ears to hear” the ever-present Spirit and voice of God!² 

¹Matthew 28:20

²That God is ever-present does not mean that everything is God. The latter is pantheism. In pantheism, God is all and all is God. God and the world are one and the same. Pantheists believe that the tree in your yard, the rock in your path, and the puddle in your driveway are God. What’s more, pantheists believe that each of us, as a part of the world, is God. This self-deification is the mantra of the eastern religions and the foundation of the New Age movement. To me, it has no appeal or authenticity. Call me unenlightened, if you must, but I have never been able to look in the mirror and exclaim with any confidence, “I am God.” Much to the contrary, what I am most often compelled to say is, “I am God's.” That there is big difference between the two is rather obvious.

 

Daily Quotation

Psalm 13:7 (NIV)