It’s been two months since I blogged here – and in that time I’ve got married (see photo below), had a wonderful extended honeymoon, and then returned to work with my church and community on facing the CV19 crisis?
Who knew that 2020 would look like this?
Many are asking – where is God in this?
And the Bible gives a surprising and incredible answer. The scriptures – Old and New – repeatedly remind us – God is WITH US!
But how? For my next few emails, I want to explore some thoughts on that…
Firstly, God is with us in His POWER. What do I mean by that?
Many years ago, a friend of mine got her first mobile phone. She was really pleased with it but one day came into the office and told me it wasn’t working. Jokingly, I asked her, whether she’d ‘charged it’? By the look on her face, I quickly realised that a penny had dropped and her belief in a miracle enduring battery life shattered. No power, no good!
In Acts 17:24 – 28, the Apostle Paul is speaking to a group of Greek Philosophers about Jesus. He says things like…
“This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth… He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people…God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn’t far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are.”
Paul is saying “None of us would exist without God – God created us, and God is continually at work in and through us – the very breath in our bodies is a gift from God. If God removed His power – then ‘game over’.”
The Holy Scriptures declare over and over again that God is the source of life. The fact that we are living and breathing right now, is the first evidence that God is with us.
If God ceased to be, we would all cease to be – He is the power and source that holds the whole of the universe together.
It’s interesting that when Paul says these words, he actually quotes some words from an ancient Greek Poet. It’s like he hijacks the words of this famous poet and applies them to God – In Him we live, and move, and have our being.
It was a moving moment this past week when many of us gathered outside to clapped the NHS and those on the front line. We recognised that we’d all be in trouble without them.
If Paul were here, he’d join in that clap, and then hijack it like he does in Acts 17, and say ” – and that applies even more so to God – we’d be in huge trouble without the God who is with us, our very existence and life depends upon Him.”
God is with HIS through the very power that is continually holding creation together. But this also raises questions – and there are other ways we can see God is with us…but more on that next time!
My simple prayer is that you will know that God is with you – may His loving presence and peace surround you and hold you close.
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