Always With Me

Written By Kenyon Draughon

The psalmist sang:

 

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 and You’re there, too—Your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in!                                                                          Psalm 139.1-6 MSG

 

I’m not certain that I want God to know ALL the facts about me. But, in my saner moments I realize He already does whether I want Him to or not. It is humbling to know that He knows EVERTHING! He knows where I go—when I leave and when I return. There is nowhere I can go that I will be unseen by Him. He knows my thoughts, even before I do! He’s behind me AND in front of me. THIS should be VERY comforting! But often it’s scary—I very seldom know where I am going, what I’m thinking, or what I’m up to, much less what HE wants, desires, expects of me.

 

Now, before you judge me, I’m not confessing that I’m an evil person who wants certain people to die or fall into ruin or knowingly participates in activities that hurt others. But I do recognize that I have a propensity to sin; that my first and most overwhelming inclination is to do things, think things, say things that are in the best interest of Moi. However, I am not hopeless…check out this prayer from Thomas Merton that continually go back to:

 

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road

ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I

really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your

will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the

desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that

desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart

from that desire. And I know that as I do this You will lead me by the

right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust

You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me

to face my perils alone.”         ~ Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

 

Thank goodness that “God With Us,” is ALWAYS with us—as the psalmist sang in another place, “I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me.” Psalm 16.8 NLT

 

Take comfort (with me) for that’s true of you and me…and anybody and everybody that breathes, which is most definitely everybody!

 

Kenyon Draughon
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