We’re Never Alone

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:17

In my addiction, I turned my back on my faith. Every time I used, I felt guilty, and so, every time I used, I asked forgiveness from God, seeking absolution for that guilt. I didn’t change or stop using though, and eventually, I accepted my hypocrisy and just stopped turning to God. Since he hadn’t taken away my addiction, I felt he’d abandoned me anyway, so it just really didn’t matter.

I was more than a little lost. I was pretty sure I needed God, but in my addiction, I actually came to doubt his presence and existence. I desired some confirmation that God was there, that he was real, and that he was engaged in my life, but I felt nothing. I was painfully alone – or so I felt.

Looking back, I can see that it was me who abandoned God, not the other way around. The reason he seemed so distant and the reason I couldn’t hear his voice, was that I’d worked really hard at turning my gaze from him and closing my ears to him.

In today’s passage, as Jesus approached his death, he told the disciples that he was going to leave them. He promised though, that they wouldn’t be alone. Jesus told his disciples that the father would send his Holy Spirit to live in them, that they may truly know his presence.

God himself, has come down, so that he may dwell in us and that we may know him. If we have faith in Christ, the father’s spirit lives in us. This is a relationship that we can, like any other relationship, grow or diminish. When we spend time reading, praying, meditating, and obeying, we draw close to God and in turn, he draws close to us (James 4:8). Likewise, if we spurn God, going our own way, ignoring him, we distance ourselves from him.

God never abandons us. If we feel God is distant and if we long to know his presence in our lives, then we must do whatever it takes to stop running from God and run to him. We’re never alone – unless we choose to be. If we desire the love, life, joy, and peace of God, then we must abandon those things which rob us of a very real relationship with him.