Deuteronomy 4:7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

This is a major point. Various religions posit all sorts of gods, but certainly at the time of the exodus, no other religion claimed their god or gods were omnipresent. I don’t know what Islam says on this point today, but that is the only religion I know of that might claim this. And of course, under the New Covenant, God gives His Spirit to not only be with us but be in us. You can’t get any closer than that! Sad to say, Jewish history, and even Church history, show that people are all too slow to recognize and acknow-ledge that God is so close. I have heard it rightly said, “If God seems far away, guess who moved?” The saints of both the Old and New Testaments were those who recognized the nearness of God and responded to Him in gratitude and obedience. This particular truth is repeated time and time again throughout the Bible. Today, those with wisdom and perception start each day reaching out to God, and don’t limit their interaction with Him to special times and places, either. Paul quoted Epimenides of Crete to say, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Those who recognized a Creator, even without the revelation given to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus, could understand that you could say we exist in God’s imagination. That is true intimacy, and failure to recognize and appreciate it is a loss beyond words.

I have commented many times that I grew up in a home where prayer was as natural as breathing. The idea that God was always listening was powerful indeed. I have certainly had times when I didn’t hear His responses very well, but that was never His fault! I find that few people I interact with really grasp that God desires such intimacy with us. I remember the time, right after our first real date, that Cathy and I spent every available moment talking with each other. The intimacy of soul to soul was intoxicating! In marriage counseling I tell couples that physical intimacy is a given in marriage, but without emotional, spiritual intimacy we get tired of it, and that’s a major factor in infidelity. My emotional and spiritual intimacy with my wife has only grown over the past 57 years, and I’m deeply grateful. (The anniversary of our first date is next month.) What’s even more wonderful is that my intimacy with my Creator also continues to grow, giving me huge anticipation of heaven, where all hinderances to that intimacy will be removed. As a pastor I try to communicate to everyone, believers and not-yet-believers alike, that God loves us more than we can imagine, and the better we open ourselves up to that love, the more glorious it is. To this point I have found very few who really believe it as much as I’ve experienced it, but I’m not to give up, but rather keep speaking the truth in love, demonstrating what intimacy with our Creator is like.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me be increasingly effective in sharing the Good News of Your love and grace, so that as many as possible may repent and believe, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!