Oswald Chambers builds a case for faith when he says, “Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him.” That thought quiets my spirit because I know that in the times I struggle with my faith, God seems distant. And there’s another saying that reminds me that when God seems distant, He is not the one who has moved – I have. I have been moved by my weariness, my stubbornness, my disobedience, my doubts, my difficulties, or even my mundaneness. My thoughts of God at those times can inaccurately reflect a god of insufficiency, who doesn’t really care, who may not want to be bothered, who doesn’t fully understand my world, or who maybe isn’t even truly present or existent. Needless to say, those thoughts of God potentially can wreak havoc with my awareness of who God is wanting to be in my life, and what He is wanting to do. In turn, my responses to God are stifled, and I tend to turn away from Him. Oswald Chambers is reminding us that at those times, God has not changed. He is the same God He has always been, and it has been at those times when I sensed His closeness the most intensely that I was also very aware of the absolute awesomeness of His being, His purposes, and His personal involvement in my life, and in the lives of others. My awareness may change – it may abruptly seem to vanish – but my God has not changed. What I need to do is remember, and bring back into focus the reality of the truth that explains and upholds the God I believe in, even though for the moment, or the season, I may be struggling.
Who is this God when I am nearest Him? He is the God of utmost love and compassion. He is the God who speaks and gives direction. He listens. His majesty and grandeur shout from mountain tops, carved-out canyons, and pounding waves. His power and design whisper in the fragrance of the rose and in the squiggles of the caterpillar. His grace – His glorious, unparalleled, unending grace – wraps itself around the struggling wanderer and the defeated victim. It holds my own heart secure in all that He is, even when my own questions plague, and frees me to grow, to become, to share my awesome, incredibly personal God with others. Remember. In the struggle of the chilling, distancing silence – remember. Forever always, He is the same.
–Bev
(Related Bible reading: Psalm 34)
