Where Is God?
“… He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…” Acts 17:27b-28a
Remember the school days when you were learning grammar? We learned the parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so forth. The one that tripped me up was prepositions. I couldn’t grasp the meaning of a preposition.
In the fifth grade, I had an excellent teacher (never mind that he was my first puppy love!) who gave me a handle on prepositions. He explained it this way: a preposition shows the relationship between objects. He chose two random objects, say, an airplane and a cloud. A preposition shows where the plane is in relationship to the cloud. The plane is ABOVE the cloud. It is BELOW the cloud. It is INSIDE the cloud. It flies THROUGH the cloud. You get the idea.
It occurs to me that we can easily think of “Emmanuel—God WITH us” in the same way. (WITH is a preposition, too.) God goes BEFORE us as leader, BEHIND us as guard, OVER us as Head, Protector, and King, INSIDE us as Holy Spirit, and UNDER us, lifting.
He lives AMONG us, works THROUGH us, pours INTO us, and makes peace BETWEEN us.
His ways are BEYOND us, He is FOR us, He is IN all our circumstances, and He stands BY us at all times.
The next time you wonder, “Where is God?”, apply the Preposition Principle. Since prepositions show the relationship between things (or people), and since God’s desire is to have relationship with us, we can easily understand His Presence WITH us at all times.
Just for fun, after the closing prayer, we’ve listed several other prepositions not previously mentioned in this devotional. We’d love to see what you ladies can contribute about the Lord’s relationship to us, using these prepositions. For example, using the word “about”, you might write, “He tells us ABOUT heaven”, or “Jesus was ABOUT His Father’s business.” Put your thoughts in the “Comment” section and we’ll post them!
God, You have arranged even our language to bring glory to Your purposes. We are amazed by the depth of Your creativity! Help us to always stand in awe of You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Some other prepositions: about, across, against, along, during, except, following, from, near, off, onto, outside, past, since, toward(s), until, upon
He comes along side us whenever we ask and even when we don’t ask He comes along side us just because of who He is. He is with us during our trials, our joys even when we don’t feel Him there.
He is not against us, He is for us
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Jesus was the way ACROSS the chasm between us and God.
Very timely, as I recently started travelling to my daughter’s each afternoon, with my two little pups, so that I can spend time with her Pup at her home while she and my granddaughter are both at work. which is about 16 miles away. Once I am in the car, A/C on and pups in their bed on the passenger side, and as I prepare to pull away from my parking area, I pray out-loud, “Thank You, Jesus for going with us; please go before us, behind us, protect both sides of us, top and bottom and help us enter and exit the busy freeway and get us safely there. My one pup starts to ‘whine’ a little as soon as I say “Thank You, Jesus…..”, which I interpret as he is praying in his way, too. I repeat this, when I leave her home. God is so faithful and good. I love the challenge of using the prepositions given, and I thank you for such a beautifully written devotional. May God Bless you today and always.