The Hugging Place--To Remind You Of His Presence

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed is Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be the night,” even the darkness is not night to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. Psalm 139:7-12

After our youngest child was born, I descended into depression. It had been hovering overhead like a black storm cloud, waiting to envelope me. The combination of a new baby and powerful hormones did me in. I felt as if I were in a fog, struggling to see my own hand in front of my face. While hormones and the stress of adding another child to two already small children played some part in my struggle, the biggest component of my depression was my unwillingness to simply fall at God’s feet and abide in His presence. Looking back, I can see now that He was always there, holding me and loving me. At the time, I was just unwilling to see beyond my narrow view, to see just past my circumstances to my Salvation, my Hope. The enemy had convinced me to wander out, away from God’s protective wings, and then he pounced. I felt cut off and alone, desperately fighting the flood of emotions that were trying to drown me and silence my testimony.

As we look at the next passage of Psalm 139, we see David’s reminder that we are not alone. There is nowhere we can go—not even death—where God cannot reach us. He is Emmanuel—God with us. I think we say this so flippantly, without stopping to think about what it means that God chooses to abide with us. He is with you:

When the mail brings an unexpected bill to a negative bank balance.
When your husband or wife speaks words that hurt.
When you’re up pacing the floors with a colicky baby, unable to provide comfort or relief.
When the car won’t start, the washer overflows, the roof begins to leak.

He is with us. Always. Forever. There is nothing you can do or not do, say or not say, be or not be, that will make God desert or forsake you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

We need to spend time in God’s presence each day to be reminded of that love. We need it. Absence makes the heart wander. We were made to worship the Living God. If we don’t spend time with Him daily, our hearts wander off in search of something else to worship. And the enemy is waiting, enticing us with a variety of idols: self-importance, self-sufficiency, self-empowerment to name a common few.

Nothing can separate you and me from God. As we spend time with Him today, let’s thank Him for His personal presence and let’s ask the Lord to continue showing us all the ways He is with us.

Father, thank You for being with me…today and each day and each moment of my life. Help me to turn to you faster when troubles come along. Remind me that no thing You have made—and You have made all things—can keep me from You unless I choose to let it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.