The amazing thing is, that no matter what happens, God is always with you
Have you ever been in a challenging situation or maybe made a bad decision which led to a serous mistake or series of events that made you feel separated from God? Or maybe there’s been a time when your life was not exactly in line with God’s plan for you. Or to be more direct, you felt trapped in a sinful lifestyle and God seemed far away. It may not feel like it at times, but God is always with you.
Well, of course, we’ve all made mistakes, whether big or small, momentary or long lasting, and in those moments or drawn out periods of time, even if it seems God is far away, and that our situation or sins have separated us from God, the exact opposite is true.
God is always with you
You are never separated from God. I mean, think about it. God is everywhere. There is no way to be absent from His presence. Just because you think you’re separated from God doesn’t mean you are.
A while back I did an episode about this: Episode 126 – You Can Never Be Separated from God.
The Bible is full of situations where people felt abandoned by, and consequently, separated from God. I’m thinking specifically about Gideon.
When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” Judges 6:12, 13 NIV
God did not abandon Israel
I think it’s interesting the angel tells Gideon that God is with him, but Gideon doesn’t understand how this could be true. In fact, he believes the exact opposite, that God had abandoned the Children of Israel.
Well, when you read this story in the bigger context of what’s going on, it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t God who abandoned the Israelites, but the other way around.
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, Judges 6:1 NIV
Gideon was actually projecting onto God the idea He had abandoned them when, in fact, they were the ones who had abandoned God. They were accusing God of their own problem.
Sometimes we tend to do the same thing. When we’re not doing what God wants us to and have abandoned His commandments, we often feel like it’s God who has abandoned us.
God is always with you, even in challenging times
But David, in the Psalms, was able to see more clearly that even when things were at their darkest moment, God was still with him.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 ESV
David knew that God was with him, even in the challenges.
You may think God has abandoned you, but He hasn’t
Isaiah comments on this tendency to blame God for abandoning us, when that’s not what’s going on at all. Even when we think God has abandoned us, He is still right there.
Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Isaiah 49:14, 15 NIV
I find that very comforting. God will not forget us. He will not abandon us. He’s always there to help us.
Here’s the point, people in the Bible, and people today, often feel separated from God and that He has abandoned them, but actually they have abandoned God. Their disobedience to God has closed their eyes to God’s presence and closed their ears to hearing God’s voice.
But just because these people felt abandoned by and separated from God, doesn’t mean that God wasn’t still very much present. God was always with them; they just weren’t aware of it.
God is always wherever you are
And I love the places in the Bible where someone catches a glimpse of this fact, that God is always present, even when things are going bad.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, 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. Psalm 139:7-10 NKJV
Isn’t this a wonderful insight into God’s nature, His ever present nature?
So how can this idea of God always being present apply to your life right now?
How can God be far away?
Have you ever felt far away from God because of what you did or what others did to you? Have you ever tried to get away from God, for whatever reason?
Going back to Psalm 139, it seems pretty obvious that if you ascend into heaven, God is there with you. It’s easy to feel God close to you when you’ve had a holy, spiritual experience, when you feel you’ve had a little taste of heaven here on earth.
But have you ever had a deeply spiritual experience and then, sometimes days, or even moments later, you feel far away from that inspiration?
I think David could be saying in this Psalm that even when you feel close to God, it doesn’t mean you might not feel separated from Him at some point.
But David points out that no matter how serious a mistake you made, and it feels like you’ve made your bed in hell, the Hebrew word is Sheol, the grave, God is still right there with you.
God was with my parents
Let me give you an example.
When I was in third grade my dad invested in a motel with two other businessmen. Through a series of events, after a couple of years, he ended up as the sole owner of the motel. He and my mom were running it, but they had no real training or specific experience in the hospitality industry.
Things went okay for a year or two, but gradually things got worse and worse and they couldn’t pay their bills.
Our whole family was under a lot of stress, but it especially took a toll on my parents. Now, I won’t go into all the details, but they were getting a little dose of hell right here on earth.
My mom and dad both had a strong faith and often prayed about the situation. Even though they were going through a hellish experience, they knew God was with them. They both told me later they felt God’s support during that time or they wouldn’t have been able to cope with and get through the experience.
The year I was in eighth grade things got really bad. There were long phone calls and appointments at the bank. Then, silence for a few days. And there was a heavy tension in the atmosphere in our home.
On Christmas Eve the phone rang, and we all knew what that meant. It was the bank. My dad listened quietly, hung up the phone, and we knew it was over. We had lost the motel. The bank took it, along with all our other assets, except for our home and our cars.
The end was really a new beginning
In one way, it seemed like the end of the world. My mom and dad had worked so hard to make a success of things. But in another way, we were all relieved. The stress, the challenges, the mental, emotional, and physical struggles were over.
Of course, we had no idea what was going to happen next.
One of my dad’s favorite Bible verses was
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28 NLT
This certainly proved to be true.
During the next few days, my dad had a remarkable sense of peace. He was definitely overwhelmed with all that had happened, but he turned to and leaned on God in ways he had never had to before.
The interesting thing is that within a week or so, his brother-in-law was talking to the president of a nearby university. My uncle told him of my dad’s situation.
The university president told my uncle to tell my dad to come talk to him a bout a possible teaching position.
God is always with you, even when it feels like you’re going through hell
The short story is that my dad went back to school at age 50 and finished his PhD in economics, which he had started 20 years before. He taught at the university level for 15 years or so.
I share this story because, even though our family went through some really deep waters, it didn’t separate us from God, but actually turned us closer to God. And God delivered us to a much better place.
Now, this may not compare with the struggles you’ve been through, or maybe that you’re still in the middle of. Your situation may be much worse, or maybe not as bad. But whatever it is, you are not, cannot ever be, separated from God. God is always with you, no matter what.
Paul explains this so clearly at the end of Romans, Chapter 8.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons [or heavenly rulers], neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38, 39 NIV
God is present in all situations
Paul gives us a pretty broad view of things that might seem to separate us from God but can’t.
Death, for example. Anyone’s death, the death of a loved one, a beloved pet, a relationship, or even the death or termination of a job or career cannot separate you from God.
You may experience a huge loss, but it cannot separate you from God.
And this is true for you personally too. If you’re afraid of what might happen to you after death because of things you’ve done, please take to heart Paul’s promise that death cannot separate you from God.
Now, some people believe it is only after they die that they actually will be with God. Many Christians believe they will only truly be with God when they die and go to heaven. But Paul makes it clear that life, being alive, cannot separate you from God either.
Death can’t separate you from God or get you closer to Him
But Jesus never said death was the doorway to heaven or that heaven was just way off in the future, accessible only after you die. He promised
… the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17 KJV
If God’s kingdom is at hand, that means God is at hand. Being alive can never separate us from God. Being alive is actually proof that God is with you, whether you realize it or not.
Paul goes on to explain all the other things that can’t separate you from God. It may seem like people in high places of power in church, at work, in the government, or wherever, can make life pretty hard with certain policies and demands that make you feel separated from God, either accidentally or on purpose.
But whatever the situation is, even if it is a direct attempt to keep God out of things, it doesn’t mean God went away. No person, policy, or procedure has the power to make God disappear. Nothing can separate you from God. Nothing can separate God from you.
Paul continues by pointing out that nothing going on right now and nothing in the future can separate you from God. That covers pretty much everything. And I would add that nothing in the past can separate you from God either.
Well, because I was reading Romans 8:38, 39 recently, I’ve been praying to know that nothing can ever separate me from God. I thought about all the things going on in my life that would tempt me to believe, even for a moment, that I’m separated from God.
Nothing can separate you from God
Here are some of the things I came up with. So, I’ll sort of rewrite Paul’s promise with some of these modern day things we have to deal with.
I am persuaded that neither egotism, whether in the form of pride or self-depreciation, nor the mistakes we’ve made nor the worst sins we’ve committed, can separate us from the love of God.
How much education you have or don’t have cannot separate you from God. Neither financial lack or abundance, family history or culture, social status, ethnic origin, nor geographical location can separate you from God.
No material situation, event, or circumstance, nor your personal opinions and preconceptions can separate you from God.
No limiting beliefs you’ve accepted about yourself, or someone else, nor lack of spiritual progress can separate you from God.
You may feel separated from God because of these things but you are not.
Good things can’t separate you from God
Neither disease nor health can separate you from God. “Now, wait a minute James,” you might be thinking. “I see how disease might make me separated from God, but how could health make me think God isn’t with me?”
Well, if you’re in good health and don’t need healing from God, you might feel you don’t need God at all in your life. But you will always need God and He is always with you.
No condition caused by heredity or upbringing can separate you from God or His love. You may think someone else inherited better health or circumstances than you did, but that doesn’t mean they are closer to God than you. Whatever the situation is, God is with you.
Your own or someone else’s lack of faith or ignorance of God cannot separate you from God. If someone is an agnostic or atheist and doubts or is convinced there is no God, this cannot separate you or them from God.
What if you’re an atheist…
Even if you are a flagrant atheist this doesn’t mean God is not present with you. You’re just not aware of it yet.
Now I’ve gone on and on here a little bit, and I’m sure you could probably add lots more to this list of things that seem to make us feel separated from God, but you get the idea.
The point is, as Paul says, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39 NIV)
God’s love in Jesus
This past week, as I’ve been praying to know that nothing can separate us from God and His love, I got to wondering why Paul adds the phrase explaining that God’s love is in Christ Jesus.
Well, obviously God’s love is in Jesus. His whole life and ministry were a testimony to God’s love for us.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the depth of truth in this statement. Jesus is not just full of God’s love. He is the very embodiment of God’s love. He is God’s love expressed. If you could turn this into a math equation it would be:
JC = GL
Jesus Christ equals God’s love.
Jesus is the actual love of God made manifest in a way we can perceive and accept it. Last week’s Episode 238 – Everything Jesus Did Proves How Much God Loves You, explores this idea in more depth. If you didn’t get a chance to listen, you might enjoy it.
A major facet of Jesus’s purpose was to show us that God is always with us. In fact, one of the names or titles for Jesus is Emmanuel, which literally means “God is with us.”
This is true for you and me today, under every circumstance. God is with us. Whatever tempts you to think you are separated from God, you cannot be deceived to believe that lie.
God is always with you, no matter what.
Photo credit: Greg Rakozy
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Judges 6:12, 13 NIV
12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Judges 6:1 NIV
1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD,
Psalm 23:4 ESV
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
Isaiah 49:14, 15 NIV
14 Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”
Psalm 139:7-10 NKJV
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
Romans 8:28 NLT
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Romans 8:38, 39 NIV
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons [or heavenly rulers], neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Matthew 4:17 KJV
17 … the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
