Ever Wonder if God is Near?
“The LORD is near to all who call on him.”
Shot from Antelope Canyon outside Page, AZ. Love the heart shape on the floor and the rich color of the canyon walls.
Have you ever wanted proof of God's presence in your life? Have you ever needed to KNOW that God was with you? Have you ever finished a confession of sin and wondered if it really was true that God would not leave you or forsake you and pour out grace upon you?
Check out the quoted verse, then, and ask this question: Why "is" and not "comes"?
I have always read this verse with the assumption that the word "is" actually means "comes." That has been a great promise. The idea that God comes to me when I call and promises to do so is such a comfort. I have imagined a loving father or mother hearing the faint cry of their child and rushing to find out what is wrong. However, when I read it this way, I miss what the little verb "is" is doing there. In missing the "is" I miss another huge reality of this verse.
The writer could have simply written it the way I read it but the Psalmist didn't. "Is" is there and this implies that the nearness of God as already present. In fact it implies that His nearness is the very thing which makes my calling out to Him possible.
For a lot of my Christian life, there has been an anecdotal myth circulating that God changes His distance to me based on my behavior. When I am good He moves close and when I am bad he moves far away. I am not saying this is heresy. There is great grace in thinking that all I need to do to bring God near is to call out to him. Here's the problem:
What makes me think I am so powerful that I can move God by my decisions? AND, isn't there a bit of the "God is my butler" thinking there as well?
So what if God never moves away from me. What if His only direction is toward me and I am the one who moves? I am the one who deafens my ears and isolates myself from God. When this is the case, it is His nearness that even makes my crying out possible. The "is" in this passage is saying that it is the very presence of God which reminds/empowers/engages me to cry out in the first place. My crying out, becomes the FIRST proof of His presence with me in the storms, sins and sufferings of life.
Either this is true or this isn't: God will never leave me or forsake me (Deut 31:6 & Josh 1:5). The "is" is declaring that fact as truth and linking our crying out to God as proof of His presence.
Those who don't cry out to God are truly wretched because it is an indication that they hav removed themselves from God.
