Finding God In The Hard PlacesSample

“Jesus Is Real.”

You know what I am thankful for? Jesus. I don’t know if you have attempted to read some difficult bits of the Bible, for example, Leviticus, but it’s like watching an episode of Vikings. Animal sacrifices, women sleeping outside of the house during that time of the month, tattoos, finding God only through the priest, and other unmentionables. My husband rolls his eyes when I say this stuff to him, and says, “Babe, God is a God of love and of order. That’s the takeaway.” 

Well, all right then. Preach it, babe. Also, my takeaway from the parts of Leviticus I actually read is that God loves His people to be healthy and whole, so a lot of the book is His loving instruction on how to live a long life before the invention of feminine hygiene products. Honestly, now that I have a toddler, I am not sure I would complain about hanging out with my sisters in a tent behind our crib. I could use a three- to five-day break. Can I get a witness? (TMI? Sorry.)

Anywho, our ancestors waited courageously for the Messiah to come. How they longed for His presence in their lives; how they ached to hear His voice; how they spoke truth to power as they prophesied a new Kingdom coming. There was even a 400-year period before Jesus was born when no one heard the voice of God, not a priest, not a prophet, not a man, woman, or child. And here we are, living in the church age of history, the Holy Spirit alive in us and through us. Jesus has come! Still, we ache and we long, and we search for God and pursue heaven on Earth, and we come up empty-handed.

Why is this so?

I think it’s because we forget that He is Immanuel, God with us. With us. He is with us on our job, at school, at church. He is with us when we do the dishes and with us at the grocery store, and with us when we buy a new car and visit our friend in the hospital. He is with us when we have to lock ourselves in the bathroom from our kids, and He is with us when our marriage hits a rough patch and with us when life breaks our heart in half. 

He’s with us when we feel lonely, with us when we feed our addiction, with us when we don’t. He’s with us when we pretend we’re something we’re not and with us when the image collapses. He’s with us when we have plenty, and He’s with us in our lack. He’s with us, friend. Always with us.

God doesn’t just want you to encounter him through a podcast, or a conference, or a message someone else preaches. He wants us to live in habitual fellowship with Him, allowing the word of God to inform the framework of our belief system and giving the Holy Spirit space to speak, to comfort, to govern us personally. 

We can unlearn the habit of leaving him out of things. We can be healed from the shame and guilt that keeps us from involving God in the parts of life we’re not proud of. We can be healed from the self-reliance we digest daily in our culture that strong-arms us into an independent life without God. Through Jesus, we can learn to live in unbroken fellowship with God. 

PRACTICE: Read the passages above four times out loud. Meditate on “God with us” for a few minutes. As you pray and think about living in unbroken fellowship with Jesus, ask Him, “Where are you in my daily life? Is there anything I am leaving you out of? Is there anything you are leading me to do about that?”