As close as close can be

There was a lovely short song by Incredible String Band called ‘Air’ which I used to love. It’s about the air that we breathe and it has this line, “You come right inside of me, as close as close can be….” (It’s on YouTube if you want to look it up).

I have been running a course about Identity, knowing who we really are – how God sees us. Because if we don’t understand the Truth, how God sees us, then we end up believing things that are not true – either things that we made up ourselves or things the enemy has whispered to us.

You know the kind of stuff: God can’t really love me with all my faults, I am not very good/I am pretty useless, I’ll never be free from my past. This week we were looking at “I am not alone” – meaning that whatever is happening in my life, wherever I am, God is with me.

When things get tough and there seems to be no end or solution in sight, it is easy to begin to say ‘God, where are you?’ ‘Why do I have to struggle through this alone?’

There are times when we can think that we are responsible for God’s apparent absence. ‘This is my fault. I’ve given in to temptation again, no wonder He seems far away.

But hold on a minute. What does the Bible say? “I will never leave you or forsake you” comes up often in the Old Testament. And then, to make sure that we understand this, Jesus said that He would be with us , right up to the very end of the age. So the question is, am I right or is the Bible right?

I have just finished reading Jessi Grren’s brilliant book Wildfires (on Kindle only at the mo). In it she gives a bit of her personal story. Years ago, before she decided to go all-in for God, she was in a relationship with a guy who at one point suggested that they have an ‘open relationship’. When she asked what that was, he said ‘when we’re with each other then we are only with each other, but when we’re apart we can be with other partners. Whenever we come together, we won’t talk about the other partners – we’ll just be with each other for the time being’. She was so desperate to try to keep a relationship with him that she said yes. In practice, she couldn’t bear it and they separated for good.

As she was writing this up in her book, she felt God say ‘That’s how some of My people are with Me. When they’re in church on Sunday, they’re with Me. Then in the week they’re with other people, and not with Me. They have two lives’. Jessi asked why He put up with it. Here’s what God said to her….

“I’m desperate for them. I love them so much, that even when they give me no relationship in return, I still died on the cross for them. so when they give me a little bit, I’ll take it because I can work with a little bit, but I want all of them”.

I believe this is an important insight into why He stays with us as close as close can be, even when we are lukewarm or walking in a different direction. It’s an all consuming passionate love that causes Him to pursue us constantly. The Truth is that He is permanently ‘as close as close can be’. Always. Forever. Because, Love.

Question. Who wants us to believe that at times God is distant (and either uncaring or annoyed). Yep, Satan. And this is what he does. Things get tough, he whispers to us ‘Not seeing God help you out much here are you?’ ‘Perhaps God doesn’t really care about the troubles of small-fry like you’.

Worse still, Satan tempts us with something, we give in, and then he changes from being Tempter to being Preacher of the Year. ‘Look what you did, again! What would your nice Christian friends think of you if they knew. What does God think of you now? He’s so disappointed with you. Unreliable. Yeah you can go ahead and say sorry to Him for all you’re worth, but it’s going to take a long time before He’ll want anything much to do,with you. You’ve probably blown it this time’

WHAT A BUNCH OF LIES ……but if we’re not careful we believe that stuff; for a while at least.

Just to be clear, I am NOT saying that because His love for us is so consuming, that we can sin regardless. A love like His that is so completely passionate towards us is not something to be taken advantage of. It is something to immerse ourselves in, as close as close can be. The only question is “How deep do you want to go?”