How Great – and How Near – Is Our God

I have loved hiking for as long as I can remember. My dad took me on weekend hikes as a kid. Sometimes we would hike through our local park and other times we would drive a couple of hours to the North Carolina mountains to hike mountain tops or to take in the views of some beautiful waterfalls. Those are some of the sweetest memories I had with my dad in my childhood.Those early years with my dad developed a love that would continue to play a role in my life all the way through adulthood.

I’m just shy of turning 40 years old, but I still make a habit of getting out and hiking whenever I get the chance. I travel quite a bit as an evangelist, so I have had the chance to hike through some amazing stretches of God’s creation. In the past couple of years I have hiked through Zion National Park, the Alaskan Wilderness, the Appalachian Trail and a few Sequoia groves. Our planet does not lack for beautiful reminders of the majesty and grandeur of God. 

Each has its own sense of beauty and wonder but there are always two lessons that God stamps on my heart on every hike. Those are the lessons of God’s transcendence and God’s immanence. His transcendence is evident in every mountain peak and sunset vista. Our Creator God is so massively powerful that He brought the mountains, valleys, oceans and rivers into existence with just a spoken word. His creative work leaves me awestruck. 

God is Near, Even in My Distance

As much as I am floored by the immensity of both God’s work and His character on these long hikes, I also come to the clear understanding of God’s immanence – the fact that He is a God who is personal and near to me. That is a fact that is clear through a significant portion of Scripture, especially in Isaiah 7:14, where the promised Messiah is to be called Immanuel – God with us. That promise always stands true, but there are times in my life when the busyness and noise of life crowds out my grasp of that promise. Affording myself the chance to quiet the jumble of noise in my life to know the character and promise of God – even on a hike – is the same sort of stillness that God invites Israel to walk in Psalm 46:10. 

Don’t allow a swarm of trials or even the busyness of the back end of summer choke out your understanding of the fact that God is with you. He is ruling all the created order from His throne but He is also with you in the times that you need a comforting Father by your side. He is set apart as a holy and mighty God, but He is “with the oppressed and lowly of spirit.” (Isa 57:15).

There is no more clear way that God has shown how personal and near He is to us than in the gospel itself. The incarnation of Christ shows that God is not far from any of us. Even though He made the world, He chose to come to the world as a man so that those who believe in Him could become the children of God. (John 1:10-12)

The Messiah’s Mission Is Never Far Away

The nearness of God does not stop with Jesus stepping into the world as a man. He goes on from His birth to live a sinless life that we could not live so that He could give Himself up as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. (1 Peter 1:19) In doing so, “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.” (Heb 10:10) The distance between a holy God and a sin-soaked man has been bridged by the work of Jesus. Because of Jesus we can “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.” (Heb 10:22) A high and holy God has made a way for us to draw near to Him – all by His work and grace. 

God does not stop there at our salvation in terms of being near to us. He also brings us into His mission of restoring the lost unto Himself. He calls His church to go out into the world and proclaim this gospel of grace to all we meet. He asks His church to make disciples just as He made disciples of the twelve men who followed Him. (Matt 28:19) Yet, God kindly does not leave us on our own in the mission. He promises to be with us until He returns again (Matt 28:20) and promises to supply us strength (Phil 4:13) and graciously supply our needs that we may bring Him glory. (Phil 4:19-20)

In His character, in His gospel and in His mission – God wants you to know that He is always with you. It might not always feel like He is. There will be times of trial and chaos that can seem to wipe that reality away, but that is just the fog of our feelings and circumstances. That is why we remind ourselves daily that “He won’t leave you” (Deut 31:8) and that “The Lord is near all who call out to Him.” (Psa 145:18) Know that He loves you, He is with you and He is near you. Remind yourself daily of God’s presence in your life trusting the promise of Psalm 73:28 that, “God’s presence is my good.”