Psalm 46:1 describes God as a very present help in trouble. Yet, that is when we humans often seem to see absence rather than presence. As I've described throughout this week, we have a tendency to want God to not only be there, but to do something about the situation as we go through it. Thus, when things don't happen the way we want, we start to wonder where God is, and why He isn't here in our time of need.
In Acts 9:5, we have a very interesting statement. As Saul, the man who would later be known as Paul, was riding to go arrest Christians, Jesus showed Himself on the road. He bluntly asks Saul why he is persecuting Him. Think about that statement for a moment. Saul, to our knowledge from the Bible, did not take part in Jesus' death. So how could Jesus say that Saul was persecuting Him? It's because Saul was persecuting Jesus' followers. Jesus' presence was so intimately tied to His followers that, what happened to them, happened to Him.
When we think about that for a moment, we come to the realization that we are, in some unexplainable way, God's presence in the world. Yes, there are ways that God continues to demonstrate that He is active in this world, and I truly believe we are so focused on logical explanations that we miss much of it. But God, in Jesus, is present in this world in every single one of those who follow Him and believe in Him.
That means that, when we who follow Jesus go see someone who is hurting, or who is in pain, Jesus is present there with them. It seems that we, far too often, put the focus on our presence, worrying about what we will say and do. We forget that our presence there means Jesus is there. And if we were to remember that, and then communicate it with one another, it just seems that we just might be a greater source of comfort to each other.
Right now, you know someone who could use Jesus' presence. Maybe it would be good to simply go see them, empathize with them, and then remind them that Jesus is present with them because you are there!
No comments:
Post a Comment