“Wherever you are, be there.” I’ve heard this said a few times in my life and it makes sense. Don’t spend too much time on where you have been, whether successful or not. Where you have been happened yesterday. Your failure happened; it’s over. Today is a new day. The life-defining victory that changed the trajectory of your life occurred years ago. It is history and today is what you have now. Alternately, allowing fear of an unknown future to stop you from living life to the fullest now is not wise either. Or, assuming you will have a future that is not guaranteed is a “setup” of the enemy of your soul. Many get into debt this way. Trying to live your current and future reality based on history or an unrealistic expectation of future events is pure vanity. Rather, be fully present in what is happening now.
God is Very Present Now
Thankfully, God is present with us now. Yes, He was present in the past and He will be present in the future, but our current needs are present tense. Psalms 46 tells us that he is our refuge and strength, “a very present help in trouble.” He isn’t just present; he is very present. Very can be defined as “vehemence, wholly, speedily, diligently, exceedingly, much, muchness, force, abundance.” In other words, He is vehemently, wholly, exceedingly, abundantly, and very much present RIGHT NOW! This is very good news for the believer! The Psalmist continues, “Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.”
Wow! What a mind-movie! Earth moving, water roaring, mountains shaking and swelling? Dang, that’s stressful! One of the worst days of my life was hearing the news “you have a tumor.” My life was moved, my heart shook, and my eyes swelled with tears as I began to process the news that my life may be over before I turned 36. Another life event that carried my heart away to the sea was when my dad confessed to me that he had left my mother (after 25 years of marriage) for a man; he was a sodomite. These life-shaking events rocked my world, but they pail in comparison to the events described in Psalms 46. Nonetheless, God proved to be very present in both examples.
Pain, Trials, and Tribulation is Present
Something I have learned through the pain, trials, and tribulations I have been through; sometimes His presence quenches the pain and sometimes it doesn’t. We all know how life tends to throw us curveballs that we are unprepared for. A car suddenly slams into us without warning, and we are soon on our way to the hospital with broken bones. A child decides to color the walls with permanent marker. Another child ends up with a life-threatening seizure that lasts for 3+ hours and ends up in the hospital for 10+ days in a drug-induced coma. A spouse suddenly passes away without warning.
All these examples (and more) smack our lives out of kilter and create an instant moment of panic. How do we deal with this? Do we simply bi-pass the pain of these events in exchange for being present with the Lord, taking the detour to “easy street?” I’m afraid it isn’t that easy.
For the Believer, He is Present in Your Heart
This is where faith comes in. Even during the most painful and stressful days of my life, the love of God has always been present and rooted in my heart. Paul spoke of this love in Ephesians 3:16-20: “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
Having Christ dwelling in our hearts, enabling us to have deep-rooted faith?! This is incredible! This is the promise of Psalm 46 actualized in the born-again believer’s life. Have you ever tried to uproot a tree? It requires some serious effort. According https://www.isa-arbor.com/Portals/0/Assets/PDF/research/educ_Portal_RootGrowth_AN.pdf , roots can extend out by 1.5 times the height of the tree (depending on the tree). Attempting to uproot a tree with this type of root-span require some serious leverage. His “very present” help is with us, abiding with us, and dwells deep in our hearts by faith! This help, in the form of deep-rooted-love, surpasses understanding and enables us to trust Him in the midst of trials, storms, and outright ugly situations.
The Solution
But how do we engage this faith? By simple, child-like belief. By simply holding our hands in air to Abba in full surrender, asking Him for help; trusting Him to deliver; trusting in his sovereign ways. Per the Old Testament, His ways are higher than our ways. In other words, logic is defied when attempting to describe his love for us; it surpasses knowledge.
If you are not born-again, you won’t understand. If you are not born-again, you MUST be, or you will perish in hell for all eternity. Ask Him today to save you. Ask Him for forgiveness. Ask him to shed His love abroad in your heart today… and He will!
