You Are There

I read a good post tonight by one of my profs, Kirk Wellum, entitled "Our Times are in God's Hands" (read the post here). It is good and comforting to be reminded that Jesus is our Shepherd, who watches over His sheep.

Sometimes it's easy to think we're invincible, independent, to begin to listen to the subtle little lie that whispers to us that we don't really need God in this circumstance. We don't need a Shepherd!
Sometimes it's easy to feel alone and helpless, to feel that God has forgotten us, that He is so concerned with His ultimate plan that He pays little attention to us. Has the Shepherd forgotten His sheep?

What wonderful words are in Psalm 139! "O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar ..."

"Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether!"

"You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me ..."

"Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ... even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me!"

"If I say, 'Surely darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,' even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you."

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made! Wonderful are your works ... in your book were written - every one of them! - the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them."

"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand."

"I awake, and I am still with you ..."

My own heart so often flits between arrogant independence and selfish anxiety and unbelief. These verses do so much to shatter both these things! How can we feel like we control our destiny when we are before a God who is infinite, who knows our thoughts before we do, who has written our days before they have even come to pass? How can we feel alone and rejected when our Father is so close, hemming me in, "behind and before,"guiding us with His mighty hand?

What a humbling and comforting thought to remember that God is always with us and holds us in His hand!

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"