David wrote, “You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” (Psalm 139:5-7).

A man once offered a child whom he met coming from Bible class a dollar if he would show him where God is. The classic reply of the young man was, “Mister, I’ll give you a dollar if you’ll show me where God isn’t!”

Jesus said, “… and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen” (Matthew 28:20b). Where can we go that He’s not, as long as we are serving Him as we should? We’re never alone; we’re completely surrounded.

We can look backward. There we see, almost two millennia ago, the suffering One who died for us. “For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we shall live together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).

We can look inward. There we see Christ living in us. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Turn your look upward. There Christ pleads our case before God. “Christ … who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:34). “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). “… He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). “… now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). “… we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

When we look forward we see Christ coming for us. “That He might present it to Himself a glorious church” (Ephesians 5:27). “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught us together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Leroy Sedgwick