Whatever came to your mind as you read the title to this post, the answer is Yes, God is with you even there. Some paths feel so lonely I wonder if God is still with me, some paths seem endlessly complex and pointless, while still others bare the sting of shame knowing they were taken in rebellion.
Though God promises never to leave us, at times His absence seems more of a reality than His Presence.
This feels most true when travelling a hard path due to some perceived fault of my own, yet even there, God is with me. Perhaps those are the very places God dwells even closer.
My expectation as I face grief-filled memories, failures or current struggles at times is rebuke from God due to my own mismanagement of situations, yet what I receive instead is compassion.
Like all the times my children made poor choices causing much grief and regret, and marveled that I still loved them. Nothing I can do will cause God to love me less. Even when my circumstances are out of my control, there is no fear or abandonment in God’s love.
Yet it is in those dark places where God sees me best.
As I struggled with processing grief and woundedness, often clouded with shame, God continued leading me to Psalm 139. At first, I thought it was to the more familiar verses of Psalm 139:13-18 to comfort my feelings of “unbelonging”, as I grappled with the neglect and rejection of my past.
But then He kept placing the first part of the psalm, verses one to six in front of me, where David is overwhelmed with God’s knowledge of him, the stark intimacy of God’s knowing.
After marveling at God’s intimacy with him, David moves to the beauty and unfathomable truth of God’s presence. Seeming to ask over and over again, in verses seven to twelve, “if I go here, or there…will you still be with me?”
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
Each instance shows not only where David might choose to go, but where he might be taken without control or choice on his part.
Verse 10– seized me one recent morning, with the words “even there”, as if God kept saying to each inquiry, “Yes, my child, even there, I will guide and hold you.”
David muses on the darkness, its power to hide and envelop, yet he stops short with “even the dark is light to you.”
As I pondered this precious promise in my own dark places, I was overcome with not only the certainty, but the gentleness with which God manifested Himself to me. The Hebrew word for “guide” in Psalm 139:10 implies a gentle or kind leading, as in leading a child or one who is lost, helpless or disoriented.
This is not a hurried or reproachful leading or correction, but a compassionate and tender shepherding.
Whether I travel a hard path of God’s choosing, another’s choosing or my own misguided or willful choice, God does not chide, but gently guides me back into His way.
When I am anxious and grieved over a direction forced on me by others, even there He compassionately comes alongside me with reassurance. Because He knows me so well, having knit me together in my mother’s womb, He knows my exact need in every situation.
Since I belong to Him, He will never leave me, nor will His love for me diminish, no matter how dark the situation, even there darkness is as light to Him as He gently guides me.
His love will guide and hold me in the darkest most remote places.
In the places of shame and sin, God is even there to lift my head, cleanse me and lead me back to healing in Him.
I have the same assurance as the psalmist, there is no place I can go, or be sent where God will not hold me. Even there in my broken relationships, even there in my fear of rejection, even there in chronic pain and financial distress; God tenderly leads and holds us.
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The power of those words “even there” – Psalm 139 was transformational for me – but what you’ve done with the “even there” – that goes straight to my heart. I’m going to think about those “even there’s.” What a good! Good Father we have!
Marleigh, “even there”, two of the most powerful words when we walk the hard paths. How precious to think we ae held “even there”, when we choose the wrong way, or “even there” when the hard way is chosen for us. Amen.
“Even there.” I agree with Joanne that these are such comforting words. Sometimes this is only seen in retrospect, isn’t it? There are memories I’d rather leave in the past, but remembering and recalling God’s faithfulness “even there” builds faith for the future. Hugs, friend.
Lois, yes, “even there”, two very powerful words which hold incredible comfort. And yes I must admit I see it more clearly in retrospect!
His Presence is beautiful and unfathomable! Wow! Even there…such a rich promise, Donna! Even there, He is with us.
Lisa, this simple promise has held me in some of the darkest places. Two words proclaim His almighty power, Amen.
I have been in some dark places for awhile, it feels really a long time. I continually remind myself of these very truths. I proclaim my trust in Jesus, who knows all, sees all and is working even so in what feels dark to me. My vision is poor , but His is clear.
Margie, “even there” has held me in places where I felt most alone. I praise God that even the darkness is Light to Him, He will illumine the way!
“Even there.” Such comforting words. There is not a single place I can be where even there our God will not be with me. Such assurance He brings us.
Amen, Joanne, even there, has sustained me on many a hard path.