A MATTER OF FAITH: WHERE IS GOD?

SONG OF SOLOMON 3:1-3
By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. “I will rise now,” I said, “And go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love.” I sought him, but I did not find him.  The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said, “Have you seen the one I love?”




Where is God? We are told to: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6) But God is not the one who is lost. The question should be: “Where am I?”

PSALM 139 THE VOICE
1 O Eternal One, You have explored my heart and know exactly who I am;
2 You even know the small details like when I take a seat and when I stand up again.   Even when I am far away, You know what I’m thinking.
3 You observe my wanderings and my sleeping, my waking and my dreaming,  and You know everything I do in more detail than even I know.
4 You know what I’m going to say long before I say it.  It is true, Eternal One, that You know everything and everyone.
5 You have surrounded me on every side, behind me and before me,  and You have placed Your hand gently on my shoulder.
6 It is the most amazing feeling to know how deeply You know me, inside and out;  the realization of it is so great that I cannot comprehend it.
7 Can I go anywhere apart from Your Spirit?  Is there anywhere I can go to escape Your watchful presence?
8 If I go up into heaven, You are there.  If I make my bed in the realm of the dead, You are there.
9 If I ride on the wings of morning,  if I make my home in the most isolated part of the ocean,
10 Even then You will be there to guide me; Your right hand will embrace me, for You are always there.
11 Even if I am afraid and think to myself, “There is no doubt that the darkness will swallow me,  the light around me will soon be turned to night,”
12 You can see in the dark, for it is not dark to Your eyes. For You the night is just as bright as the day.
    Darkness and light are the same to Your eyes.
13 For You shaped me, inside and out.  You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath.
14 I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe. You have approached even the smallest details with excellence;  Your works are wonderful;  carry this knowledge deep within my soul.
15  You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You as I took shape in secret,
    carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb.
16 You see all things; You saw me growing, changing in my mother’s womb;
Every detail of my life was already written in Your book; You established the length of my life before I ever tasted the sweetness of it.
17 Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them! How grand in scope! How many in number!
18 If I could count each one of them, they would be more than all the grains of sand on earth. Their number is inconceivable! Even when I wake up, I am still near to You.
19 I wish You would destroy all the wicked, O God. So keep away from me, those who are thirsty for blood!
20 For they say such horrible things about You, and those who are against You abuse Your good name.
21 Is it not true that I hate all who hate You, Eternal One?  Is it not true that I despise all who come against You?
22 Deep hatred boils within me toward them;  I am Your friend, and they are my enemies.
23 Explore me, O God, and know the real me. Dig deeply and discover who I am.  Put me to the test and watch how I handle the strain.
24 Examine me to see if there is an evil bone in me, and guide me down Your path forever.

In this worship Psalm written by David he reminds the listener: God knows everything there is to know about each and every one of us. God is omni-present and omniscient.

Where do you find God? In church? At a night club? On the streets? At Bible study or at a friends house? WHERE IS GOD?

JAMES 4:8
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

JAMES 4:8 THE EXPANDED
Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You sinners, ·clean sin out of your lives [L- cleanse/purify your hands; C- a metaphor for cleaning up your behavior]. ·You who are trying to follow God and the world at the same time [L- You double-minded ones], ·make your thinking pure [L- purify your hearts; C- a metaphor for cleaning up your interior life].

NOTE: I am including the New King James and the Expanded translations of this verse for a better study.

God is ever present in the Believer’s life; it is how a person thinks that prevents an awareness of His presence. God is a spirit which means fleshly thougths and ideas are irrelevant.

ISAIAH 55:8-9
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

We are created in His image (Genesis 1:27) which makes us spiritual beings contained in flesh.

1 CORINTHIANS 2:9-12
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”[Isaiah 64:4]
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

When we enter into the new birth we develop an awareness of His presence that increases with maturity. To be “born again” simply means we have expereinced the second birth, a spiritual awakening; the first birth being the external birth out of the womb.

COLOSSIANS 3:10
and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

GALATIANS 5:16
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

The Shulamite woman in the Songs sought after the king. It was a personal decision; she did not care what people thought.

SONG OF SOLOMON 3:3-5
The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said, “Have you seen the one I love?”  Scarcely had I passed by them, when I found the one I love.
I held him and would not let him go, until I had brought him to the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.

In pursuit of a personal relationship with God you have to be willing to ignore the opinions of people, including religious status quo, and go after Him.  Remember the story of the woman with the issue of blood who had spent all of her money on doctors? (Mark 5:25-34) She risked being stoned to death to seek Jesus. She had to be pretty close to the ground, crawling perhaps, because all she did was touch the hem of His garment. It is also your responsibility to maintain that relationship.

ROMANS 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

- written by Marsha L F Randolph

A MATTER OF FAITH- SONG OF SOLOMON STUDY  reflects the opinions and property of the author MARSHA L F RANDOLPH. All rights reserved- do not use without permission. All Scriptures quoted are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise stated. Don’t miss weekly faith based post FOLLOW THIS BLOG and receive notifications when a new article is posted.
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