God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

 

Where is God in uncertain times? He’s closer than you know.

Each morning we wake up to a world that’s different than it was the day before. Anxiety is always nipping at our heels as wars, storms, earthquakes, economic upheaval, and disease shape our thoughts.

The Psalms of the Bible have long comforted and steadied the human heart and Psalm 46 reminds us of where we can find help in times like these. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble,” verse 1 says. The key words in this verse are the words ever present. He is as close as your own breath inside you, for after you’ve surrendered your life to Jesus’s control, your life is “in Him.”  “For in him,” Scripture says, “we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:28a).

We desperately need to learn to live within the reality of God’s presence with us, and this purposeful awareness takes quiet focus. To start, God says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). All the noise we allow into our lives drowns out the voice of God’s Spirit that’s been described as “still and small” (I Kings 19:11-13).

The degree of our awareness of God’s presence correlates to the quality of our communion with Him and our habitual intake of His Word. Many begin a daily practice of reading scripture, meditation, and prayer with a statement like this one, saying: “As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly, to re-centre my scattered senses upon the presence of God.”[1]

Where is God in uncertain times? Psalm 46 declares, “The Lord Almighty is with us” (46:7a).

[1] Portal, Pete. Lectio355. “24-7 Prayer, Version 1.8.10, October 24, 2023. www.24-7prayer.com.