Are You Living a Godless Life?

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. – Genesis 28:15 NIV

You will never go where God is not. Envision the next few hours of your life. Where will you find yourself? In a school? God indwells the classroom. On the highways? His presence lingers among the traffic. In the hospital operating room, the executive boardroom, the in-laws’ living room, the funeral home? God will be there. “He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).

Each of us, God does not play favorites. From the masses on the city avenues to the isolated villagers in valleys and jungles, all people can enjoy God’s presence. But many don’t. They plod through life as if there were no God to love them. As if their only strength was their own. As if the only solution comes from within, not above. They live God-less lives.

But there are people among us who sense, see, and hear the presence of God. People who pursue God as Moses did. Moses preferred to go nowhere with God than anywhere without him. (Exodus 33:15)

As David did. Though he hid from God for a year, when David finally confessed his immorality, he made only one request of God: “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

David knew what mattered most. The presence of God. He begged God for it. Do likewise.

Make God’s presence your passion. How? Be more sponge and less rock. Place a rock in the ocean and what happens? Its surface gets wet. The exterior may change color, but the interior remains untouched. Yet place a sponge in the ocean, and notice the change. It absorbs the water. The ocean penetrates every pore and alters the essence of the sponge.

God surrounds us in the same way the Pacific surrounds an ocean floor pebble. He is everywhere – above, below, on all sides. We choose our response – rock or sponge. Resist or receive?

Open every pore of your soul to God’s presence. Here’s how:

Lay claim to the nearness of God. “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). In the Greek, this passage has five negatives. It could be translated “I will not, not leave thee; neither will I not, not forsake thee.” Grip this promise like the parachute it is. Repeat it to yourself over and over until it trumps the voices of fear and angst.

You may lose the sense of God’s presence. Job did (Job 23:8-9). Job felt far from God. Yet in spite of his inability to feel God, Job resolved, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (v. 10 NIV). What gritty determination. Difficult days demand decisions of faith.

Don’t equate the presence of God with a good mood or a pleasant temperament. God is near whether you are happy or not.

Cling to his character. Quarry from your Bible a list of the deep qualities of God, and press them into your heart. My list includes: He is still sovereign. He still knows my name. Angels still respond to His call. The hearts of rulers still yield at His bidding. The death of Jesus still saves souls. The Spirit of God still indwells saints … In changing times, lay hold of the unchanging character of God.

He’s waiting on you, my friend. God has not budged. His promise still stands: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15 NIV).

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Excerpted from You’ll Get Through This by Max Lucado. Copyright 2013 by Thomas Nelson Books. Used by permission.