WHERE IS GOD?

As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before him? Day and night, I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” . . . Why am I discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!Psalm 42:1-3, 11

Where is God when we’re in the emergency room with a severely injured loved one? Where was God in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995? Where was God in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? When trouble or tragedy strikes, we long for God, the living God. Who can tell us where God is? His Word tells us over and over: he is in the one who visits those in prison; he is in those who give food to the hungry; he is in the comfort of a loving arm extended around those who are hurting. He is in the prayers of a mother for her sick child. He is in the rescuers who work to save lives and in the missionaries who leave family and friends and personal comforts to share the gospel with those in darkness. He is demonstrated best, though, at the Cross, where he gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, for our sakes that we might have hope for this life and for eternity.

LORD, I praise you that you are Emmanuel—God with us—in everything we experience as we walk through this broken, hurting world. Help me to be your hands and feet today, your words of comfort and encouragement to those who need to know “where you are” in their times of deep need.

The presence of God is a fact of life. St. Paul rightly said of God, “In him, we live, and move, and have our being.” Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” We may, by defying the purpose of God, insulate ourselves from that presence. We may, by unrepented sin, cut off the sense of God because we are clouded by a sense of guilt. We may, through no fault of our own, be unable to sense the God who is all about us. But the fact remains that he is with us all the time.J. B. Phillips (1906–1982)