This week, I am so thankful for God's presence pervading my life. Embarking on a new year, he is already very knowledgeable about everything that will happen! The best thing is, all his plans are to prosper me, body and soul; and to help me look more like him!
Meditate with me on this song, Psalm 139. Written nearly three thousand years ago, it still speaks clearly to the core of who I am: a child of God, created in His image. When I understand how involved He is in my life, fear, anxiety and temptation to ignore His voice melt away. Father God, 'Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?' ...I didn't think so.
God, investigate my life;
get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead you're there, too -
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful -
I can't take it all in!
Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
If I flew on morning's wings
to the far western horizon,
You'd find me in a minute -
you're already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God - you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration - what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted form nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.
Psalm 139:1-16, The Message Translation