Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 86. God’s Providence through His Presence (His nearness is the provision for my future)

Hello human.

Let’s set the stage for today’s BUOY.

Jeremiah had a tough job. Being a prophet had little prestige and only the power God chose to display. Having just read through the Bible I have a more realistic understanding about the relationship between a prophet and the Jewish nation. I used to think that being a prophet was an elevated position among the people. That the people listened to their prophet, and showed respect. But the truth is that God asked prophets to do hard things, deliver tough messages, that often gave way to dangerous circumstances. Martyrdom, for some. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial, among others.

Because human nature is always in a battle with God.

Jeremiah prophesied from 626 BC to 587 BC, the final years of Judah before they were exiled to Babylon. Jeremiah’s central message was one of judgment, that the chosen people had not believed or worshiped the one true God, had continued to find other ways to worship, turning away from obedience over and over again.

With such a challenging call, a prophet had God’s omnipresence on his mind day in and day out, right? It was the work of a prophet to listen to God, to listen for God, and to speak in His name.

Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 4:7

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?

 Our pursuit of God’s presence makes me think about our Psalmist, a prophet, King David. With one of the best descriptions of this mindset.

Psalm 139:7-12

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

    Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

    if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

    and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

    the night will shine like the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.

God holds His universe together as He speaks. His presence is essential. His providence is universal as we can grasp it.  And beyond that.

Jeremiah’s prophetic passage through discourse with a sovereign God, and discourse with a disobedient chosen nation holds so many truths.

The one that has my attention is not unlike so many times God speaks to us rhetorically, questioning the borders of what we mentally entertain.

Consider this conversation with Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 23:23-24

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.

In this historical context God is speaking about the false prophets, declaring that He hears their words, but those words are not from Him. That what anyone says, and claims is from God, He hears.

But He remains sovereign.

Fast forward to your life, human. My life.

The unknowing battle we are in with our God. That human nature thing. I am witnessing about God’s presence, His sovereign providence and presence because I am constantly trying to corner Him.

Corner my Creator with my human nature.

Press Him for a plan, a decision, a next step.

I offer a multiple-choice question of solutions. Pick one, God. A. B. or C.?

I pull Him into my fevered impatience of “I need to know now.”

I challenge Him with my short-sighted, self-imposed deadline.

The corners I put God in, are because I only see in part. I corner God when I can’t understand His presence, His reach, His provision for my life. I put my timeless, eternal God in timeout.

I won’t belabor this.

When He asks me “Am I only a God nearby?” Even though He references hiding, which I know people may subconsciously think is possible, it isn’t hiding for me, it is that I don’t grasp the scale and scope of His sovereignty in shaping my future.

That His nearness is the provision for my future.

The definition of the Hebrew word for “near” is:

• of place
• of time
• of personal relationship
• kinship

Doesn’t that about cover it? That God’s provision is for our immediate needs, for the timing of the struggles we face, for the relationship He has with each of us, that He started, that He nurtures, and anchors in His love, and for kinship. Being close to each other in the common bond we share. He is the Creator. I am made in His image.

When we want to contain Him, corner His power and presence, we can do this. Slow the roll and rest in His presence.

Psalm 73:28

28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.

    I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;

    I will tell of all your deeds.

If we seek the goodness of being near to Him, life becomes divinely practical.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says “pray continually.”

Praying for and pursuing God’s presence and provision is how we let God reign in our lives.

And Ephesians 4:6 is so powerful.

6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Obedience is the path to God’s presence and provision. Episode 87.