He’s Already There (and Here, and Everywhere!)

Sometimes, when I pray for a particular person, I say, “God, please BE with …..” But I’ve had to rethink that wording. Because God is already with ….. Instead, what I really mean to pray is that God’s presence will be felt and acknowledged by the other person; that God will move and act in such a way that the focus will shift to HIS almighty power and provision in a certain situation.

God is omnipresent. There is no place in Heaven or on Earth where God is NOT. In fact, the only place where we could be removed from God’s presence is in Hell. In fact, the most horrifying aspect of Hell is that it is the complete absence of God’s presence. The misery, torture, and fear of Hell is a direct consequence of God’s absence.

There are many situations in our lives when it may seem that God is absent, or that God has turned His back on us. Sometimes, this is really because WE have chosen to turn our backs on God. He is right there, but we are deliberately looking the other way. Other times, God is there, but He chooses not to remove an obstacle or circumstance that is causing us pain or grief. We don’t always know why He seems silent or inactive. But He is there, inviting us to trust His timing and wisdom in every situation. He delights with us, and He grieves with us. He may not give an instant answer to our questions or doubts, but he sits with us, ready to hold our hand and wrap us in His loving care. He doesn’t give up and leave us when the going gets rough. He is closer than a whisper, and He sees and hears everything. No matter what darkness we face, His light can guide us through.

The Psalmist, King David spoke of this with wonder:

⁷I can never be lost to your Spirit! I can never get away from my God! ⁸If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. ⁹If I ride the morning winds to the farthest oceans, ¹⁰even there your hand will guide me, your strength will support me. ¹¹If I try to hide in the darkness, the night becomes light around me. ¹²For even darkness cannot hide from God; to you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you. (Psalm 139:7-12 The Living Bible)

The Apostle Paul also spoke of God’s abiding presence, through Jesus Christ:

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39 ESV)

Jesus Himself promised His eternal presence as well:

Matthew 28:20–“…And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Hebrews 13:5 (quoting Jesus)…’for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”’
John 14:18– “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

No matter where you are today, God’s already there! No matter what difficult road you have to travel; no matter how long it takes you; no matter what other obstacles you will face, God’s already there! Whether you are resting in green pastures or walking through the valley of the shadow of death (see Psalm 23), God is with you– He’s already there!

And as we pray, God is already there– He already sees the future. He’s already redeemed the past. He has already seen the end from the beginning, and yet He patiently sits with us in the present, offering comfort and hope.

May 8, 2026 0

A Walk Around the Block

I keep a prayer journal. I’ve written about it several times on this blog. I keep track of people and places to pray about every day of the year. But I also have a tool I call “Prayer Points.” Each day of the week, I like to focus on a different aspect of life around me. One day a week, I focus on family matters. Another day, I focus on finances. Yet another day is all about cultural influences. And one day is for community. When the weather allows, I love to take walks around my neighborhood. And as I walk, I think about how I can pray for my community. I pray for the local churches (including, but not limited to my home church). I pray for the local schools, our local community college, and our local day care facilities, and their influence over our children and grandchildren. I pray for our local businesses– the grocery stores, the insurance reps, the chiropractor’s office down the street, the local bakery, the museum across the tracks (the train station, while I’m at it). I pray for houses, parks, families and pets, trees and roads, too! I am amazed at how much I notice on my walks as I am thinking of ways to pray.

It’s winter in our area right now, so I can’t physically take a walk around the block without bundling up. But I can walk the perimeter of my small shop and mentally take a walk around the neighborhood, praying as I pace back and forth. I did this the other day, and couldn’t believe how quickly the time had passed! And next week, I can take another “walk” as I pray for gas stations, fast-food restaurants (as well as the local diners and bistros), the library, the post office, the hospital….

I post this, not as a model for everyone who reads this. Some people live in remote areas– where I grew up, there were only about seven houses and four fields on “my block”! And it may not be possible, or even safe to walk around your neighborhood praying for specific buildings. But mentally, we can each consider how to pray for “our” neighborhood. It may be your neighborhood at work, or on your commute, or at school. It may be the neighborhood of your closest village or your apartment complex or cul-de-sac. You may wish to draw a map to remind you to pray for those around you. You may be able to drive around periodically. You may wish to list your closest neighbors in a journal or planner.

It’s important for our prayers to be inclusive–to reach out and carry burdens for those around us. That doesn’t mean ignoring our own needs or concerns. But it can help put those needs in perspective. We are not meant to “do life” alone. We are part of our communities, whether we acknowledge it or not; whether we participate in community life or not. And that should find reflection in our pursuit of prayer.

Have you taken a walk around the block lately? Have you noticed situations around you that call for praise or petition? What are some of the ways you see God working in your neighborhood? How would you like to see more of God’s hand at work there? In what ways might God be calling you to become more involved in community activities or one-on-one with your neighbors?

January 19, 2024 0

Prayers for the Nameless…

I keep a prayer journal. In it, I like to write the names of people I know and pray for– family, friends, neighbors, etc. For every day of the year, I have a list of people who are celebrating birthdays or anniversaries (if I know about them). And I also have a space where I list specific requests related to health or suffering, needs, grieving, and more.

But many times, I also get generic or “unspoken” requests–no names or specific details. And for every day of the year, I also have a place or region– a city, state, province, nation, continent, ocean, desert–for which I pray. Sometimes, this can be awkward. I don’t always know for whom I am praying, or for what outcome…should I pray for peace?..prosperity?..courage?..the weather?..the government?..

So what is the point? Why not stick to more “focused” prayer? Why not pray for those things with which I am most familiar? Most comfortable? Most able to make or see a difference?

Because God calls us to pray. And He calls us to pray both for those people and things we know well, and those we can only hope to trust to Him. I don’t have to know WHY I am praying for Albania (beyond the fact that it is on tomorrow’s page of my prayer journal). I don’t have to know who lives there, or what the needs are. I don’t have to know, because God knows, and I am trusting HIM to know the who and the why, the how and the when.

The other day, I was reading in Genesis– the story of Noah, and the Ark. The Bible introduces Noah by giving us a genealogy: a list of the descendants of Adam through to Noah. And there is a curious side story about Nephilim, and giants, and wickedness. But there is something noticeably missing. The women’s names. Even in the story of Noah that follows, Noah and his sons are named. But not the wives…we know they are there in the Ark. We know they were saved from the flood. We know they were crucial to the survival and future of mankind, but there are no names. At other times throughout the Bible narrative, there are seemingly endless lists of names of people we are likely to forget–names like Peninnah (1 Samuel 1:2), Unni (1 Chronicles 15:18), Shelumiel (Numbers 10:18), Palal (Nehemiah 3:25), Tryphena (Romans 16:12), or Onesiphorus (2 Timothy 1:16).

Names are important to the Lord. He knows each and every person’s name before they are even born. He knows the number of hairs on each person’s head (even the ones that used to be there!). But it is not necessary for US to know every name, every need, or every situation in order to lift it before our omniscient and loving Father.

So I will continue to pray for the nameless and the unknown. I will lift up unspoken and unformed requests to the God I DO know.

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile on Pexels.com

Another reason I continue to pray for the nameless is that it keeps my focus outward. One of the drawbacks of the modern and post-modern world is that the “smaller” our world becomes, the smaller our focus. I can connect, via internet, to people around the globe. I can look up statistics for any country or region; I can see news reports and video uploads in real time from nearly every corner of the world. But it can be frightfully easy to turn my focus on myself and those immediately around me, to the exclusion of those whose names don’t show up on my “friends” list, or those whose faces get lost among the thousands of videos, and Facebook Posts, and Instagram shots. It can be deceptively easy to depend on what I can “know” from a computer screen, and not to depend on what God knows to be true.

Let’s open our hearts and minds to pray for the nameless among us– near and far. They are not nameless to God, and they are precious in His sight. And somewhere, someone may be praying for “nameless” people in our nation, or city, or region– US!

January 4, 2021 0

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He’s Already There (and Here, and Everywhere!)

A Walk Around the Block

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