GOD ALMIGHTY IS WITH US
(5-minute read)
Some of us say He is love, some say He’s faithful and awesome. To others, God is a Father and their Saviour. Who God is to us informs how we have personally experienced Him in our lives. He personifies love to the lonely and brokenhearted. He is the faithful God who stays when those we thought would stand by us bailed out. He is a Father who heals our broken relationships with our earthly fathers, and restores us to His fatherhood. Who God is to us becomes the testimonies embedded in the biography of our lives that others see.
Our different descriptions of God invariably lead us to one quality of who He is: the Lord Almighty. The miracles we experienced when we were in a tight spot confirmed it. The extraordinary lightness we felt while we were still in a bind assured us that an Almighty God was with us. Although we usually talk about God from our past experiences, we are also talking about One who is present and relevant today because He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
The entirety of Psalm 46 (11 verses) describes how King Hezekiah experienced God during a time in his life when he faced enormous threats as a new king (read 2 Kings 18-19 for the riveting account!). He was barely 30 years old and only four years into his kingship.
From the start of Psalm 46, God is described as a source of both refuge and strength that was ever-present to the Israelites in their troubled times (v1). They had experienced immense ‘distress and rebuke and disgrace’ as a nation (2 Kings 19:3). Hezekiah then laid out all the challenges to his kingship without downplaying their realities (v2-3). Yet, he uplifted God as a more powerful counter-force (v4-6) and against all the perceivable odds, he was convinced that ‘The Lord Almighty is with us’ (v7). When God swiftly gave Hezekiah a decisive victory against his enemies, it was promptly broadcast to the community, ‘Come and see what the Lord has done…’ (v8-9). Hezekiah’s faith and conviction made God’s invisibility more perceivable and His voice more powerful. He sensed this assurance from God: “Be still, and know that I am God.” (v10). As a result, God is inexorably sealed in Israel’s victory, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (v11).
This compelling narrative also shows us that experiencing God makes His voice appear as natural thoughts in our minds and His assurance to us becomes a personal conviction even before evidence emerges.
Whatever is your past experience of God or if you need to experience Him in a new way right now, know that He is ultimately an Almighty God who is with you, too! Don’t let insurmountable problems and even economic realities drown you in the process. Know that God alone is permanent, nothing else is - not even the seemingly unending problems you are facing.
Together, let’s take a leaf out of Psalm 46 to help us achieve three personal milestones with our Almighty God:
1. We Will Not Fear
To say that God is our refuge and strength is to recognize that seeking shelter in Him is not a cowardly move but an empowering one. Those who seek refuge in Him find respite from external pressures and rest from constant worrying about the next best steps to take or how to score a success. Those who are torn in different directions will experience spiritual reset as they anchor their hope in an Almighty God who can sustain them through all unexpected storms of life.
“Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging!” (Psalm 46:2-3).
Let this battle cry strengthen your battered souls!
2. We Will Not Run Away – But We Will Run To Our Refuge
As humans, we instinctively take flight and flee from the source and scene of all agitation, conflict and distress. In addition, when our lives are spinning out of control, we isolate from others - especially when we think that feeling sad is a bad thing and we feel ashamed about it. Yet, it’s exactly during times when we feel like running away that we must reverse course, and run instead towards our God Almighty and tether our hearts to His Word and let it pivot us to the right course.
“The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” (Proverbs 18:10).
“I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” (Psalm 91:2).
3. We Will Not Hide In Fear – But Rest In The Shadow Of Our Almighty God
When we shadow someone at work, we observe and mirror what they do as we learn on the job. We learn the ropes so that we can be prepared to overcome issues that we have not previously encountered. Whether virtually or physically, we stay connected and close to the one we are learning from.
Psalm 91:1 provides a graphic description of the closeness of being in God’s shadow: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” We all know that shadows do not exist on their own but they are cast when something physical blocks the path of light. Thus, we stand in God’s shadow only when He is close enough. God’s shadow is His invisible presence.
There are times when the realities we experience don’t seem to substantiate our faith. Seemingly hopeless, we are left to face dreary health reports, prolonged financial setbacks, extended job search, unsuccessful job interviews and loneliness that make us fearful of the future.
However, God invites us to the safe place of His shadow where we can bring our fears to Him like how Hezekiah laid out the bare facts on the intimidating letter that mocked his faith in God (2 Kings 19:9-19). But Hezekiah also kept a right perspective of God. Conventional wisdom tells us that without the correct reference point, we will see everything immediately in front of us overly magnified in proportion to everything else around. Thus, if we see God as our reference point as Hezekiah did, our huge problems are right-sized in relation to His power to reconstruct realities for unimaginable outcomes. We can therefore find rest in knowing that even in our storms, He is our ever-present help (Psalm 46:1).
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 13 August 2022.
