Where is God today?

Where is God?

When Elijah was taken up into heaven and Elisha was left on his own, Elisha thought on the final request he had made of his old master.  2 Kings 2:9 “And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

Even on the basis of “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”, that is a bit of a tall order. I mean, after all was said and done, Elijah had a powerful anointing. So I imagine it was with mixed feelings that Elisha turned back towards the river once more. “I asked for a double anointing – he said that if I saw him go – I saw him go - “Where now is the Lord God of Elijah?” 2 Kings 2:14 The rest, as they say, is history.

Many times in our lives, we question like Elisha, “Where now is the Lord God of Elijah?” We may not use those exact words but that is the sentiment behind our questioning. Stuff happens. We don’t like much of the stuff that happens. We question God. “Where are you? Where were you? Where will you be next?” What a cheek we sometimes have. Questioning God and calling Him to account? What arrogance!

We forget that we live in a fallen world and the Prince of this world is  Satan, the enemy, the devil – call him whatever you will. God can only be there with us in everything if we give Him permission to be there. Forgetting to commit ourselves to Him in a particular course of action does not obligate Him to say ”Well, they meant to ask my protection.” No, no, no – we need to commit every action of every day to Him. We need to do everything we do as if we do it for Him – personally. We need to commit everything we do before Him in prayer – before we start doing it.

That way, and only that way, we can look back and thank God. We can look forward and trust God. We can look around and serve God. Then perhaps we can look within and find God. I don’t mean this at all tritely.

·        When we can look back we can see God’s hand upon our situation; how He used everything for our good; and how we came through it all with His help. That’s when we can really thank God.

·        We can look forward, remembering what He has done in the past and knowing His provision and protection in everything. That’s when we know we can trust God.

·        With a grateful heart, we can then look around, see the need, and serve God.

·        And having done all these things, we can look within our hearts and find God. He’s almost certainly been there all the time, but we haven’t been listening like we should.

All He wants is a two way conversation with us. It’s not a bad way to do everything is it? All we are doing is seeing God’s will and purpose for us and following His gentle leading.