Closer Than You Think

“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:” (Ac 17:27 AV)

Paul is speaking this to a group of unregenerate philosophers on top of Mars hill.  They have met to hear or tell some new thing.  They have met to spin their web of human reasoning, stirring the brain to mull over any new mind candy that comes along.  If they were saved, they would be a group of highly educated theologians sitting around trying to discover some ancient error in orthodoxy.  But I digress.  It cannot be missed that Paul is speaking to a group of unsaved men.  It cannot also escape the notice that Paul includes every single individual in the statement that God is not very far.  In other words, God is nearer to every single individual than they truly understand.  This blows the lid off of the error of election as taught by the Calvinistic mind.  God is not any nearer the eventual elect than He is the eventual non-elect.  Equal access to the grace of God for all!  However, we are going to look at this in a bit more practical sense for those who have called upon the LORD as their Savior.

Any parent knows a child can easily forget how close his or her parent really is.  Have you ever seen a toddler forget how close Mom or Dad actually is?  Perhaps they are in a play room and began with the company of a parent.  Then, as he or she became more and more occupied with their toys, Mom slips off into the kitchen to tend to a chore.  After a bit, the child doesn’t sense Mom in the room any longer, nor does he hear her scurry about as evidence of her distant presence.  For the first time, this young child knows what it feels like to be alone.  A wail of a cry breaks out.  Mom runs to the play room expecting to find a missing limb or a bloody nose.  She finds the baby sitting on the floor crying like there is no tomorrow without nary a bump or bruise.  What happened?  Did he get pinched?  Did he bang himself in the head with a toy?  Why all the fuss?  The baby was so wrapped up in the activities of the moment, he forgot that Mom, although barely noticeable, was just around the corner.  She was still in the house and her sixth sense knew he was just fine.  He didn’t know this.  But she did.

God has given us a precious promise.  I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. There are times when we feel He has gone very far from us.  Sometimes, those feeling are of our own making.  Sin does that.  But there are other times when the are not.  When we are overcome with trials of life, and those trials seem to take on a mind of their own, we are in a whirlwind forgetting that God is nearer than we believe.  We can become so busy in life that our devotional life lacks the vigor it once had.  It can become a dull drudgery of duty rather than the precious time of refreshing it is meant to be.  Our lives can take from us spiritual perception because we seldom are in total control over it.  In those times we must remember God is nearer than when we believed.  He is not as far was we might think.  God is only a prayer away.