Friday, July 16, 2010

Can you see that God was there all the time?

Psalms 139:7, 8

You cannot get away from the love of God. Psalms 139 says, "if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou are there." I challenged God on that verse many years ago when I was in my own hell of unemployment, couldn't find a job, had no gas or electricity for several weeks, taking pennies to a supermarket that would accept them to buy canned soup that I could eat cold out of the can, one way carfare to job interviews in which I took my sneakers so I could walk 3 or 4 miles back home.

Do you see that God was there with me in that hell? Angrily I asked, "where are you, God? Where are you in this hell?" He was there all the time. With no electricity, I got up at daybreak so I could read and study the Word all day until it got too dark to read. Then I went to bed. I rolled pennies in brown paper and took them to the only place I knew that would accept them and bought 2 or 3 cans of soup and crackers because they were non perishable. Sometimes I bought a bag of ice so I would have cool water to drink. Can you see that God was there all the time?

I seemed to always find enough carfare to get to the job interview. I had to take my sneakers so I could walk home, sometimes from the east side of midtown back to the west side of Harlem. And many times I cried when I got home, from exhaustion and frustration. Can you see that God was there all the time?

I walked to and from church, a little over a mile a couple of times a week. Someone would take me out to eat between Sunday services. Little did they know that was the only meal I'd had or might have for a couple of days. Do you see that God was there all the time?

Romans 8:25, 38, 39
Not only did God meet me in my hell, but even that could not separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Neither the distress or famine I was living could separate me from the love of Christ. Neither the place I was at - hell - nor the sometimes-angry-at-God person I was could separate me from His love.

Can you see He was there all the time.