His Presence Holds You
Have you ever gone through such a difficult time that you just wanted to get away from it all? Or wished you could escape as far away as possible where no one could find you? You are not the only one who has felt that way as we see in Psalms 139: 7-10 New American Standard Bible:
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
So often when we are going through a trial, we feel like we are alone. But what we don’t realize is that even if we tried to be completely alone, we never could be, because God is always there with us. The psalmist asks two questions-“Where can I go from Your Spirit?” and “Where can I flee from Your presence?”. The answer is “Nowhere.” There is nowhere that God isn’t present. Even when we think He’s not there, even when we feel He’s not there, even when Satan makes us believe He’s not there, HE IS THERE. He is the God who SEES you, your every move, your frame, your ways, your thoughts before you speak them, YES, HE IS ALWAYS THERE.
In Genesis 16:6 Hagar was mistreated by her mistress after she was made to have a child by Abraham. Hagar chose to flee to the wilderness to die, but THE GOD WHO SEES met her there and she lived. In Genesis 21:14 Hagar didn’t choose to go but was cast into the desert and thought she and her son were going to die, but GOD HEARD them both crying and opened their eyes to see that He was WITH THEM and they lived. Whether you yourself flee to the desert or someone drives you to the desert, He will meet you there, He SEES you there and He HEARS you there. And just like He provided the well of water for Hagar and Ishmael, He will provide the WELL of HIS LIVING WATER, HIS PRESENCE for you in those dark and dry places, so you also will live.
From this Psalm, we see that when we feel like we are in heaven, on the top of the world, and everything is going well in our life, He is there. When we feel like things are so bad, like we are going through “Sheol” or Hell, He is there. When we just can’t handle our trials anymore and want to fly away from them as far as the dawn, He’s there too (Luke 1:78). When we feel like life it too hard, like we want to just camp out in the deepest darkest remote place at the bottom of the sea, Yes, He is even there with us. The Spirit of God moves over the deep waters (Genesis 1:1-2) and God Himself is in the deep places too.
Our scripture tells us that in those deepest hardest places, the places where we don’t think He is moving, where we don’t think He is present, even there He is leading us. Even in those places, His right hand “lays hold” of us. Why His right hand and not His left hand? My mother taught me this verse Roman’s 8:34 NASB:
Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
God’s right hand is so special because Jesus sits at God the Father’s right hand interceding for us. Take a moment, close your eyes and picture Jesus sitting next to God the Father and He is praying for you right now. That picture brings such peace!
In those deep and hard places, He is laying hold of us. “Lay hold of” means “to seize, lay hold of, catch, fasten” This isn’t a casual, light hold. This is a purposeful, tight seizing hold. So in those places where you think you have taken flight and flown to a place where He is not, or descended to a depth where you think He can’t reach you, even in those places, He has a tight hold on you. He is not letting go of you; he is seizing you. Here’s a final thought for you from Isaiah 41:10 NASB:
Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
So when you are in those deep hard places, please remember
HE IS HOLDING YOU TIGHTLY AND NOT LETTING GO.
In His Love,
Suzanne
Mom Morsels 