What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? Deuteronomy 4:7
I often have heard those describing Christianity as a religion like none other. In every other religion we, the people, have to get to god. Whether it be through certain rituals or traditions or doing enough good things to earn our way to him. In Christianity however, we can never earn our way to God. We can never be good enough to atone for all the wrong that we will do in our lives. So God came to us. God dwelled with his people and when the time was right we came down to earth, taking on the form of man and dying for his people, for his Children. So many religions teach us that God is so distant and inaccessible to us, but our God is near us unlike any other God.
Someone once told me that God is as far away from us as the distance from our knees to the ground. This is prayer week at Canyon Ridge and this verse should remind us that God is near us when we speak to him.
Trials and tribulation can often make him seem so far away, but they are mearly a distraction. When the disciples encountered the storm in Mark 4 Jesus felt so far away to them, but he was there all along, wanting them to have faith. Maybe the beginning of the end of the hard time you are facing is not God solving your problem, but rather you taking the first step of knowing that God is near and he will not forsake you.
