Dear Sister,
The past few months I have been learning about all the ways that God is not like us. Most recently, I learned about God’s omnipresence or his “all present-ness.”
Part of being God means that he is fully present everywhere – not just in space, but also in time: in the past, the present, and the future. He is not like us when we try to multi-task with our attentions divided; he is fully present everywhere that he is. He is just as much present with the persecuted church in China as he is with the constitutionally protected church in the US. He is there when life is brought into the world and he is there when it is snuffed out. He watches over everything in every place of his creation and there is nothing that happens that he is not an eye-witness of, which brings me to today’s passage.
In Psalm 23, we learn that God is our shepherd. Thinking about the role of a shepherd we can know that God watches over us, protects us, and leads us (v. 3). When we wander, he seeks after us, finds us, and restores us (v. 2). When we are downtrodden or anxious, he comforts and calms us (v. 2, 4).
I love knowing that God is my Protector and my Comforter but my favorite part of this passage comes in verse 4: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
The past two weeks I have felt God working in my heart in a special way. I know God is always working but sometimes it’s hard to see and we don’t always feel it. However, his current work in my life has become tangible in a way I haven’t experienced in quite some time.
Learning about how God is fully present everywhere all the time floored me. It made me cry to realize that God never has to ask me how my day was or how I slept because he has neverbeen away from me. He loves me – and you! – that much!
He loves us so much that even in the “valley of the shadow of death,” he is right there beside us. In the dark places that we don’t want to expose to anyone, he is there. In the struggle against cancer, he is there. In our most miserable – and most sinful – moments he is there. He neverleaves us and because he never leaves us, we no longer have to be afraid – not of man, not of tragedy, not of anything!
Psalm 23 is not the only place where we find that God is with us. Over and over again, God promises to be with his children, to never leave them or forsake them (see Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 43:2, 5; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5). God is so serious about this promise that he even intertwines it with one of the names of Jesus. In Matthew 1, it says “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us” (1:23).
So, dear sister, I hope this reminder renews your faith and increases your hope. I hope it motivates you to resist temptation, knowing that when we sin we do it in the sight of God. I hope it comforts you in your grief and strengthens you in your struggles. And most of all, I hope it brings you rest – knowing that your Shepherd cares for and protects you, casting out all fear.
Walking with you,
Kayla