What does this mean: "Standeth God within the shadows"? Is God really an absentee landlord only glancing our way from time to time. Disinterested. Out of touch. Out of reach. A curious onlooker who won't be bothered to get involved.
Has God deserted us? Or has he made a strategic retreat to provide us the opportunity to prove our loyalty to him? Maybe God is out of sight but not out of touch.
There is a reason we're not hauled into heaven and put in a kindergarten next to the throne room. We've been forced into freedom. We are under God's eye but not his thumb. We're not treated like helpless infants but like growing adolescents.
We're not orphans: "The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left--feeling abandoned, bereft. So, don't be upset. Don't be distraught" (John 14:25-27).
We have the gift of God's Spirit. He is here. Now. Within. We don't have to search for him, shout for him to come, or beg for his attention. The Spirit is closer than our breath. He lives within us at the spiritual center of who we are.
What a magnificent gift!
We're not alone anymore. We don't have to figure everything out for ourselves; we have the Spirit's counsel. We don't have to live in the puny energy of human nature; we are empowered by His presence, graced by His gifts, and changed by His character.
Sure, at times it seems as if God "standeth within the shadows" but even there he is only a prayer away.
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