{"id":6563,"date":"2015-06-04T01:14:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T01:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6563"},"modified":"2015-06-04T01:20:27","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T01:20:27","slug":"he-is-not-far-from-any-of-us-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6563","title":{"rendered":"He is not far from any of us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!<\/em> Isaiah 45:15<\/p>\n

Does God seem to be hiding His presence from you? Don\u2019t be discouraged. He Himself has not departed from you; He is close at hand and is very engaged and interested in your life.<\/p>\n

I’ll use an illustration from my teaching days\u00a0to drive this point home. A first year middle school teacher at my school had very little control over her classroom, and one young man in particular was especially challenging for her. I watched this bunch with great interest, for they would soon be advancing from seventh into eighth grade\u2014the grade I taught.<\/p>\n

As the year progressed, the disruptive\u00a0behaviors in this class\u2014stirred relentlessly\u00a0by this one young man\u2014grew more and more unruly, outrageous, and unbearable. Unfortunately, this new,\u00a0young teacher had little support from the administration, but one day she\u00a0made a very wise decision:\u00a0She\u00a0contacted the teen\u2019s mother\u2014a street-smart police officer-in-training.<\/p>\n

Mom showed up the next day when the students were out of the room, and with the teacher\u2019s permission, she hid in an empty classroom locker. (Did I mention that Mom was in great shape and could actually fit<\/em> into a classroom locker?)<\/p>\n

The bell rang, and soon students, loud and rambunctious, began filing into the room. The teacher called for order, and slowly\u2014with attitude\u2014one by one these young teens took their seats\u2014everyone, that is, except the ringleader. He became more and more boisterous, strutting around the room, daring his teacher to do something about it. And as he danced around, a virtual one-man vaudeville act, wild and full of himself, what do you know? Out of the locker jumped his mother!<\/em><\/p>\n

Everyone in that class roared with delight except one\u2014the young man! Shock, horror, and awe spread across his face as his body froze in terror. That which was hidden was now revealed, in oh so many ways!<\/p>\n

You are probably not like this young man, creating havoc in wild abandonment. You are likely disciplined\u2014constrained by decorum and kindness\u2014and yet God seems to be hiding from you.<\/p>\n

Wherever you may be on the \u201cself-control spectrum\u201d\u2014from completely out-of-control to rigidly self-disciplined\u2014God is near, loving you\u00a0no matter\u00a0what He sees or hears.<\/p>\n

And God is something like that mother who loved her son enough to hide, only to make her presence known in time\u2014suddenly. Your God\u2014though seemingly hidden\u2014is near to you, also.\u00a0And He will be faithful to reveal Himself when you most need it\u2014and sometimes when you least expect it!<\/p>\n

Rest assured. God\u2014though seemingly hidden\u2014is very near.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

…He is not far from each one of us.<\/em> Acts 17:27b<\/p>\n

Do not fear, for I am with you…<\/em> Isaiah 43:5a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior! Isaiah 45:15 Does God seem to be hiding His presence from you? Don\u2019t be discouraged. He Himself has not departed from you; He is close at hand and is very engaged and interested in your life. I’ll use an illustration from my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-god-who-hides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6563"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6570,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563\/revisions\/6570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}