God is always near, God always sees

Article for September 20, 2026

Isaiah 55:6 6“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;

God is near yet we are so far away.  God is always near, though we do not act like He is near.  We act like God is in heaven and heaven is very far away.  God is near and so is heaven.  We do not acknowledge that God is near because we think we cannot see Him, and in many cases that is true.  The question is do you only see with your physical eyes?

We live in a physical world and pay attention to the physical things that surround us.  Jesus says we need to be reborn of the spirit and do away with the flesh of this world.  So, we should ask, what is it like to be more in the spirit than in the flesh?  What is it like to leave our flesh behind so that we can be in the spirit. 

When we are in the spirit we may notice the presence of God always around us.  God is nearer than you think and we can notice His presence though we do not see Him with our physical eyes.  Living in the spirit we can realize that we live in a transparent glass house that keeps us visible to God.  God sees us no matter how hard we try to hide from Him.  We can’t escape the eyes of God, yet we try again and again. 

The concept that God always sees us might help us realize just how close God is.  Knowing God can see us also might help us realize our guilt because God sees our sin as it happens.  It is ok to feel guilty in that feeling guilty is the first step of repentance.

Isaiah 55:7 7let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Knowing your sin and admitting it to yourself and to God is a step towards repentance.  We are all sinners whether we like it or not.  Hopefully we don’t like it, being a sinner.  There is one thing we can hate, that is sin and hate it even more that is our own sin. 

Hating our own sin is not an excuse to point out others’ sins.  If you are pointing out other’s sins, you are sinning again and need to repent once more.  However, hating your own sin should be a calling to true repentance.  True repentance is being truly remorseful and apologetic for what you have done in sin.  Not just in words but in heart.  And not just to God and those you may have sinned against, but to yourself as well.

Every time, and I mean every time we turn to our Lord, He is compassionate towards us.  He hates our sins as He should, but He loves us His children that He created in His image.  God sees our suffering and empathizes with us through Jesus Christ His Son.

This is another reason Jesus came, that He could show us that He has empathy for us as He, as Jesus, saw our suffering and stumbling firsthand.  Jesus also suffered when He was here on earth and suffered for our benefit.  And not just to suffer but to give us a full pardon of which He gave in an abundance so that we might realize the love of our Creator for His creation.

Isaiah 55:8 8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

Who knows what thoughts our Lord and God have other than His love for us.  We may sometimes think we have a God that we can humanize.  This thought process is so lame because we fail to realize our God is greater than we are.  We cannot mold God or His thoughts to align with ours.  And we fail at trying to align our thoughts with His.  What makes people think they control God or His thoughts?

Living in the Spirit then is to listen to God through His word, the Holy Spirit and through prayer.  If we can listen to God, His word and prayer are good starting points.  God tells us what is right and wrong, but He also tells us of our weaknesses, that is our sins, and He tells us of His compassion for us, and His plan to bring salvation to us through His Son who ushered in a Godly forgiveness that brings everlasting Life.

Look at our ways, even the best of us; our ways are not like the ways of God as our ways are for ourselves even when we do for others.  God’s ways are not like man’s ways as man’s justice is not like God’s.  We might try to show a forgiving justice, but even then, we mess it up as we try to justify those whom we can’t because we do not fully understand repentance.  Our world just does not understand the meaning nor the power of repentance through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 55:9 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Do you understand that God’s ways require righteousness?  Not our righteousness but the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This clothing of righteousness only came to us through Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.  Jesus is the one who knows how to justify us as He clothes us in His righteousness.  The suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord was not done in vain, but in deep love for a creation that our God loves to life.  Amen

Written by Pastor Curtis A. May