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SPEAKING TO THE SOUL

Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God.
Psalm 90:2 NLT

I love the phrase “God is first cause and final end”. For me it is a comfort to declare that God precedes everything and endures beyond the destruction of everything. My confidence in God is not in God’s presence or absence, but in God’s eternal reality.

How I feel or perceive life can neither enhance nor diminish that truth. Many of us will have experienced grief. We may have lost a close relative or friend. While we may no longer enjoy a casual coffee and catch-up, their permanent absence does not delete the reality of the many enjoyable past moments we enjoyed together.

During tough times when God seems distant, I have found great value in revisiting historic moments when I’ve known God’s presence. Not to compare and contrast my present lostness with happier times, but to renew my confidence in a God, presently invisible, but whose work surrounds me. Nature was birthed by God. The sights and sounds of God’s presence abound. It is a season for faith for me. Have I the courage and resilience to walk it?

In an age of convenience, we assume that God, along with takeout coffee, Amazon Prime and social media, must be available 24/7. God is present 24/7, for how else is the world sustained upon its axis? It is my troubles, the perspective it produces, my own loss of perspective that obscures my capacity to experience God. But be assured God continues. The question is simply will my faith in God prove as robust as the mountains that give witness to God?

Times when God appears absent are a part of the evidence for God’s abiding presence. For here you discover your own motivation in pursuing God. God is not some candy store for self-gratification. God is Lord of all who chooses to demonstrate the coming kingdom through the lives and testimonies of you and me. God is indeed “first cause and final end”.

QUESTION

What testimony do you have of memorable moments when you have experienced God’s presence?

PRAYER

Creator God, you are almighty, everlasting and all-knowing. Your ways and purposes are often beyond my understanding. I put my trust in you.


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