Episode #370 God Is Closer Than You Think – God Is Already Here

Hey, friend. Do you ever feel like you're just trying to get to God, like he's far off or you feel disconnected and you're trying to get to him? Maybe you're aware of ways you've fallen short areas of sin or where you're struggling to trust him, even. And so it can feel like, “man, if I can just get to God,” I hear that sentiment a lot as I'm serving in ministry in this way and helping people experience real relationship with him. And I have felt this way too, where I have assumed that my position toward God is at a distance. But I wanna offer us a different thought today, and I invite you to sit with this and explore this with God. What if he's actually right there with you? What if what you most need isn't to get to God as though you are far away, but is to wake up to the awareness that he's already close at hand?

As I was sitting with this theme and looking at ways we see this in scripture, there were a few different passages that came to mind. One of them is from Luke 24, and this is after Christ is resurrected from the dead and he's on the road to Emmaus with two disciples. And he's talking with them and they are discouraged. They're confused, even because they thought that Jesus was the Messiah. But when he died on the cross, that was not what they thought was going to happen. And so he's walking with them on their heavy journey home and he's explaining the scriptures to them and they invite him to come in and eat with him, even though it says Jesus acted like he was going to be continuing on his way.

And in verses 30 and 31 of Luke 24, it says:

"When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight."

There's a lot that I love about this passage. I love the relational and casual nature of this, that Jesus is there sharing a meal. He's in their home with them and it's in his act of blessing God for the food, that their eyes are open and they recognize him. He'd been with them this whole time, but they hadn't known it.

Another place we see this is in the story of Jacob, which is recorded for us in Genesis 28. And Jacob was on this journey. He was at odds with his brother Esau, and he had laid down in this place and slept. And while he was sleeping, God gave him a dream that, portrayed God and angels and the nearness of heaven.

And we pick it up in verses 16 and 17 and it says:

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

And in a way that was common for their culture and their time, Jacob built an altar there to the Lord because he was like, there's something special in this place. God was here and I didn't know it.

As modern day believers, we also get to know from scripture that God makes his home in us, that we are the temple of the Living God. And so it's not just a physical place that we're in where we can feel God's nearness. It's in any moment. Surely God is in this place, in this moment. Surely God is living in me, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. But when I go through that painful circumstance, when I go through that busy day or I tackle that unending to-do list, sometimes I just don't know it.

Or I forget to notice it.

Similar to how Jacob woke up from his sleep. Or how the New Testament believers had their eyes opened to how God was there with them. We can wake up, we can have our eyes opened to notice how God is here with us in a greater way. I love the visuals of these stories, and so the question that I wanna leave you with today is to ask God for a visual. To help you picture him, and how he's there with you.

Maybe he'll bring to mind a specific circumstance or a time in the past where you can see his presence at work. Maybe he'll give you a picture of his posture toward you. That's what he gave me. It wasn't a specific room or an environment, but it was a posture. I can picture myself straining towards God, as though he is far off and not near to me. The picture that he gave me was us seated together in my hand, in his, not straining, but at peace.

And I don't know what he will share with you today, but he knows each one of us and he knows what we need. I invite you to take this moment and seize the opportunity to talk with him more about it.

And here's that question:

God, what's a picture I can hold onto of how you're here with me?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

Connect with Jen on Instagram