God everywhere

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  Psalm 139: 7-10

I love these verses of assurance that wherever we go God is there. Joseph found this to be true. He did not leave God behind in Canaan when he was sold into slavery. He knew God was with him even in the midst of the great idolatry of Egypt. He knew who was God. God cannot be superseded by anyone or anything else – he is God – the Lord over everything.

We know He never leaves or forsakes us (Joshua 1: 5). He doesn’t leave us the entrance to the tunnel of difficulties, promising to meet us at the other end. He is with us in the darkness, shedding his light, giving us assurance and holding our hand every step of the way.

If we are called across the world or even to a different town, God is already there waiting for us. How can God who loves us, leave us?  Unfortunately our circumstances can sometimes become so huge and difficult that they appear to block out God’s presence and the devil rushes in with his lies of rejection, isolation and abandonment making us doubt God and his promises. But God is there and what we have to do is cry out to God in our darkness and he will show us he is there and has been all along.

Joseph must have done this. Despite being betrayed, sold into slavery, falsely accused, imprisoned, forgotten and abandoned, he never seemed to let go of God. In fact as we have seen he prospered and so was able to say to the brothers when they came to Egypt that it was all God’s doing. What the brothers had meant for harm, God had meant for good and the family was saved (Genesis 45: 8). It was in Egypt that they grew from an extended family into a nation (Genesis 46: 3).

There are no circumstances that separate us from God. Paul was convinced of this (Romans 8: 38 – 39) and there is no place we can go no matter how demonised that God is not with us. He is there through thick and thin and his goodness never fails. The devil may try to persuade you that God has forgotten you or is testing you with awful circumstances but it is a lie. Difficult times may surely come but God is there with us and Jesus assures us that he has overcome every difficulty (John 16: 33).  He will protect us, show us the way and give us his peace as we trust him to work out his plans and purposes for our lives.

Unexpected circumstances

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8: 28

What happens in your life when things do not work out in the way you either expected or wanted?  We may have prayed and really expected that God would do as we prayed and it didn’t happen.  Someone is not healed, we didn’t get the promotion we wanted and expected, our house sale fell through, we didn’t get into the school or university we both wanted and believed God was opening the door for.

There are times when we have a very specific word from God but there are other times when we just have to trust the overall goodness, love and mercy of God.

Quite a few years ago I heard very clearly from God to teach our youth group about water baptism. There were confirmation of this, I prepared well and really gave it my best shot. At the end of my talk I said to the group, ‘so would anyone like to be baptised?’ The oldest boy in the group said he wasn’t ready and everyone else quickly agreed. I was so disappointed. I had done everything God said and the end result was not at all what I expected. I thought they would all want to be baptised.  My husband assured me that I had done all I could and God would do the rest.

 So when things go wrong, if we have a specific word from God then we can hang onto it in faith and trust God to bring it about. If we do not have such a word, we then have to trust in the unfailing love and overall goodness of God. The key word here is trust.

Sometimes when things do not work out as expected, the only thing we can say is, ‘God I don’t like this, it wasn’t what I wanted or expected but I trust you’.  As his child God wants to do us good, to bless us, to provide for us but above all he wants us to learn to trust him above circumstances. If we only trust God when we get what we want, then that is not really trust at all.  It is when circumstances are not going our way that we really learn to trust God.

The second thing we need to say is, ‘what are you doing and what are you saying God?’ Then relax and trust him to bring about good things. It may not be how we wanted it but God is looking at a bigger picture than we can see and that is why trusting him is vital.

God is good and we need to settle in our minds and spirits once and for all that God will work all things together for good. He is not looking for opportunities to trip us up, be unkind, uncaring or indifferent. He loves us and wants to bless us. We can trust him and as we do so, we will be amazed at how he works things out and how our faith grows as a result.

So what happened to my youth group? All of them were subsequently baptised and most are serving God faithfully.  He really can be trusted!