God with You

In the silence and darkness of the night, we can feel so alone. In the stillness, we can feel isolated and crave human companionship. We long for the voice and touch of another person – just their presence. We listen for other noises, anything to escape the quiet.

What the boy Samuel discovered was that these moments are when we realize that we are not really alone. In a general sense, we may believe that God is with us, but a life time of experience encourages us to focus on other people – parents and siblings, neighbors and spouses, colleagues and media. We tend to focus on the noises around us.

But in our isolation, we can be driven deeper in the silence when there are minimal distractions. That’s when we can discover that God is with us. We can sense His presence with greater clarity, and He can speak to us.

But we must listen. Relish the quiet. Appreciate that we are not alone. We shouldn’t feel isolated but realize that God really is with us. It is not an accident that Jesus was called Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

Samuel learned these insights as a little boy. He learned to embrace the silence and listen. He made himself available for God to speak. These were insights that changed his life. He no longer felt alone or isolated but conscious of the presence of God and ready to listen.