Just how close is God?
Is God “watching us from a distance” as Bette Midler’s hit song would have us believe?
Or, is God’s interest in us more intense? Is He prepared to get up close and personal with us? I’d like us to consider today, just how far He is prepared to go! To do this I’d like to highlight three important phrases that describe the extent of God’s involvement with His people – those who believe in Him and receive salvation through His Son.
God is with us
Matt 1:23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."
The prophet Isaiah foretold that they would call him “Immanuel” which means “God with us”. This proves to us that the universe is definitely not like a clock that is winding down as God dispassionately watches from a distance. God is involved, God even has His hands dirty as He engages with humankind. He is both the Creator and the Sustainer of His creation. He is busy redeeming and restoring a world gone wrong.
The Psalmist expressed a wish:
Psa 144:5 GNB O LORD, tear the sky open and come down; touch the mountains, and they will pour out smoke.
God, in Jesus, has done just that!
Perhaps in this past year there have been times when you have felt abandoned, that you were all on your own, that God no longer cared, that He had deserted you. The Devil would like you to believe that, but don’t be fooled – Jesus remains “Immanuel, God with you”. Even if we have been unfaithful, He remains faithful. Even if we have forsaken Jesus, He promises to “never leave us nor forsake us.”
No one knows what next year will hold, but we know who holds us.
Deu 33:27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
I hope you are excited about God being with you! But wait, it gets even better… The next significant phrase I have for us is…
God is for us
When God saw our crisis and our need, He didn’t merely say, “Ag Shame!” (Or as they say in ‘New South African’ – Eish! Sorry Né!). No! He took action – God sent His Son Jesus to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to identify fully with us in our need – to express solidarity with us.
Heb 2:14-17 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
We all resent advice and instructions from someone in the proverbial “Ivory Tower” – commands that come from people we deem to be ‘out of touch’. But, God is not out of touch with reality – He knows the ugly face of human depravity, He knows the hopelessness of human suffering.
Jesus came for the poor, the broken hearted, captives, prisoners, the blind, those mourning and grieving… (See Isaiah 61:1-3)
No matter what the circumstances are like around you, remember what the Scripture promises…
Rom 8:28 In all things...
God works for the good...
of those who love Him..
God is for you, so much so, that He is actually working for you. Our part of the deal is to keep on loving Him no matter what is going down. Rom 8:31 goes on and asks the question…
If God is for us, who can be against us?
The expected answer is, “No-one!”. No-one can succeed in being against us. Why? Because we have friends in high places. The heavyweight is on our side!
One man and God is a majority. (Think of how, in the wilderness, Moses took on the whole nation of about six million Jews who had rebelled against God.) If we know God is for us, we’ll have an authority that “skriks for niks”. (Is afraid of nothing!)
Rom 8:32 goes on saying…
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
This explains the extent of God’s commitment to us. It amplifies just how much He is for us. God effectively “emptied His pockets” in giving us Jesus. Jesus was our substitute on the Cross and is presently our advocate on high, our high priest and our intercessor. He is still giving of himself as
“He lives forever to intercede with God on our behalf” Heb 7:25.
This Christmas, be reminded of just how much God is for you and as you venture into 2022, revel in the fact that God is on your side.
So, God is both with us and for us. As if this were not enough, God would also love to come and dwell in us…
God is in us
Jesus said the Holy Spirit was with his disciples, but would soon be in them (See Joh 14:17)
The miracle of the New Covenant is this: God cleanses by the blood of His Son, the repentant sinner, and then, by His Spirit, takes up residence in their heart and life, giving them a new nature.
The implications of this are staggering…
The orphan spirit of man is replaced by the Spirit of Sonship (Rom 8:15-16)
We are empowered by God himself (Acts 1:8, Eph 1:19)
We become partakers of the divine nature. Our old, sinful nature is displaced by the new nature of God (2 Cor 5:17)
God writes His laws on our hearts. It’s no longer a matter of outward obedience to the written code, but of inner obedience to the Spirit (Rom 2:29) No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. (Rom 7:6) But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
We can tap into the very thoughts of God. We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:9-10). We therefore have the potential of being the most creative people on the planet.
We are no longer “ordinary men”, we are “extraordinary”, because God has added His extra to our ordinary. We are no longer merely “natural men”, we are “supernatural”, because God has added His super to our natural. We have “Christ in us, the hope of glory!”
I have to conclude that God definitely gets up close and personal…
He is Immanuel, God with us!
Not only is He with us, but He’s also for us.
Not being content with that, He also desires to indwell us and make His home in our hearts.
As you sail into the uncharted waters of 2022, dwell in Him and allow Him to dwell in you.
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