The List

The list is long.

This list never ends, and it often repeats itself.

The names, the people, the events are all important.

Relevant.

Not to you maybe, but to me. To God.

As I prayed through the list, I am reminded in the quiet of the early morning hours that God never sleeps.

When I awake in the middle of the night, He is there.

When I receive a text early in the morning, He knows.

And when I sit down to focus on all that He is, to call on His name as I pray for you,

He hears.

That the God of the universe would even know my name is awe-inspiring enough, but to read in His Word that His knowledge is so much more than intellectual.

It’s personal.

The all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God is also called “Our Father”.

That changes everything. He is not a God created by human hands or conjured up in the mind of a human being. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. When we come to Him and choose to trust in Him alone for our salvation–based on faith in what Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection, we become “children of God.”

“The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.  From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ ” Acts 17:24-28

As strange as that may sound to you, the reality is that the God who created you designed you for a relationship with Him. Read those verses I highlighted again.. “He did this so that they might seek God…” He is not far off or distant! He is supreme, He is sufficient, and He surrounds you with the evidence of His love.

“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.” Psalm 139:7-12

In the beauty of the sun glistening on the snow. The warmth of sand beneath your feet. The smile on a stranger’s face. The innocence of a newborn baby, or the warmth of a hug just when you needed it most–His presence is all around you. You just have to open your eyes–and your heart to see Him.

In the joy of a hope revealed or in the hope of things to come, He is pursuing you. In the peace that settles over you in dark times, or in the love that you feel even when you are alone–He is there with you. He is reminding you that He has a plan for you, and the only way to know that plan is to know Him. When you pray, don’t think of it as though you are saying words in hope that He will hear you. Trust that He’s listening, and then seize those moments as an opportunity to listen and to talk to God as a child would to a loving Father. He’s there waiting for you.

If you’d like to know more about how to have this kind of relationship with God, just go to this page: FAITH to read more.