WOULD YOU SETTLE FOR AN ABSENTEE GOD?

“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not; Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence? …”

(JEREMIAH 5:21-22)

“There are over many who have much knowledge and little virtue,” said the blind saint, Malaval, “and who often speak of God while rarely speaking to Him.”

 

The Bible teaches plainly enough the doctrine of the divine omnipresence, but for the masses of professed Christians this is the era of the Absentee God. Most Christians speak of God in the manner usually reserved for a departed loved one, rarely as of one present; but they do not often speak to Him.

 

Truth is always better than error, and with the inspired Scriptures before us we need not think wrongly about such an important matter as this. We can know the truth if we will.

 

An Absentee God is among other things inadequate! He does not meet the needs of the being called man. As a baby is not satisfied away from its mother, and as life on earth is impossible without the sun, so human beings need a present God, and they can be neither healthy nor satisfied without Him.

 

Surely God would not have created us to be satisfied with nothing less than His presence if He had intended that we should get on with nothing more than His absence.

 

No. The Scriptures and moral reason agree that God is present!

W. Tozer