"Very Present"

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." (Psalm 46:1-2)

Believers hold as a matter of Biblical doctrine the blessed reality of God's omnipresence. He is present any and everywhere, and "the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3; Psalm 139:7).

There is nevertheless a place where Scripture declares God to be more present than in other venues. He is "very present" in His children's troubles. We speak not of proximity, of course, but rather of our Heavenly Father's propensity for compassion, mercy, and lovingly taking upon Himself the cares of His children. He draws near to us when we hurt, and as "the God of all comfort," our Lord purposes to apply the balm of grace to the deepest part of our heart, indeed, to that place where only He can go (II Corinthians 1:3).

It doesn't always feel this way, however. The same David who rejoiced in God's "very present help" also cried out to his Lord in distress, "Why standest Thou afar off, Lord? Why hidest Thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1). The Holy Spirit led David to not only proclaim the conviction of his heart, but also the questioning of his flesh. Every honest believer will attest to the same dichotomy of trusting but also wondering when pain, loss, sorrow, and heartbreak comes our way. "Lord, I believe. Help Thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). We are not yet perfected, and feelings of doubt will often accompany a heart of confident faith. "When I would do good, evil is present with me" (Romans 7:21).

Our present existence involves not the elimination of doubt, but the overcoming of it through the power of the Holy Spirit. When trouble comes, and God seems far away, we may know in our hearts that He is actually more near than at any other time. Doubts may remain nonetheless, and so long as we do not embrace them, we have not fallen into unbelief. "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith" (Mark 11:23). Our Lord reveals that doubt is a matter of the heart rather than the flesh. So long as we are affirming therein our confidence in God's "very present help, our faith is intact and is actually fed by the feelings of doubt that give us the opportunity to declare, "Regardless of what I feel, or what thoughts may be running through my mind, herein I stand: God is present, is very present in this distress, and He is everything and more that I need Him to be."

If we've ever had a sympathetic feeling toward a hurting loved one, we have tasted the emotion of God toward us when we hurt. But only a taste. Indeed, we have no emotional framework capable of accommodating the feeling our Heavenly Father feels in His compassion toward us. Thus, "the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart" (Psalm 34:18). Again, it will not always seem that He is "very present" in trouble. But it will always be true that He is.

"The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion."

(Psalm 111:4)

"The Weapon of Waiting"

"Wait on the Lord; be of good courage and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psalm 27:14)

One of the most aggressive things believers do is to wait on God. When He places us in circumstances where actions would be unwise or impossible, and wherein waiting is the only thing we can do, much is taking place that only our Lord can accomplish.

It doesn't feel this way, of course. It feels risky, and it seems that not taking matters into our own hands places us in the position of failure to deal with people and situations that require our involvement. The truth of the matter, however, is that when God stills our hand, He engages His own in ways that He alone can accomplish. Waiting on God therefore calls us to the active role of faith whereby we affirm that He is present and mightily at work in the situation. This is spiritual aggression of the highest order, and also prepares us for the time when we will be called to act.

We are to "fight the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6:12). This involves both dynamic activity and quiet stillness, as led by the Holy Spirit. Both aspects of our arsenal do great damage to our spiritual enemies as we faithfully walk with God. He is never still in His ongoing working of "all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11). Confident affirmation of this truth places us in our proper position of faith in times of waiting, and ensures that we do not add man made tools, as it were, to the building of altars that only God can construct (Exodus 20:25). It is not an easy way, and our own flesh, as well as our spiritual enemies, will tempt us to walk when we should be standing still. It is a necessary component, however, of fighting the good fight with the weapons that "are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (II Corinthians 10:4).

"Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever."

(Exodus 14:13)

"Rollaway"

"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5).

The Hebrew root word of "commit" in this passage means to roll something away from one's self. We are thus commanded to roll away, or separate our way from ourselves in the sense that it is not actually our way. "Ye are not your own" (I Corinthians 6:19).

"None of us liveth unto himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord" (Romans 14:7-8).

The context of every moment of our lives is God. Of believer and unbeliever alike, the Apostle Paul wrote, "In Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28) All that we do is with the "life, breath, and all things" that He provides (Acts 17:25). We either use it well, or we we misuse it, but all is done with our Creator as the center and circumference of all things. Committing our way unto our Lord therefore involves our recognition of reality, and of the truth from which we can never escape.

Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee" (Psalm 139:7-12).

David wrote these words as a believer, and as one who knew not only the universal presence of God, but also His leading and holding. The unbeliever lives also in a creation that is "full of His glory," but he does not know the Lord's direction and keeping (Isaiah 6:3). He rejects such Divine involvement, but again, he does not and cannot avoid the fact that God is the great fact of His existence. Believers also sometimes ignore or turn away from the teeming pervasiveness of our Lord in His creation and in our lives, but nothing changes the truth. The great significance of every circumstance, condition, contingency, and situation is the God who originated and sustains our existence, and to whom all that we do is directed. "We live unto the Lord..."

Our spiritual sensibilities are presently too limited to consciously know more than a modicum of the great fact and the great significance. However, we must embrace it as a matter of vital doctrinal principle, and we must recognize that committing our way to the Lord is simply opening our eyes to "the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). We are as fish that swim in the ocean that is God, and the more we know and believe the truth, the more our being will be illuminated for both our benefit and the blessing of others. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ has delivered born again believers from the cruel slavery of believing that we can make our own way in a universe where only One Creator exists. We therefore "commit" our way to Him. We roll away our lives from ourselves with great confidence and determination to the God who will faithfully bring to pass the fulfillment of His glory, His will, and His blessed reality in us.

"We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

(Ephesians 2:10)