There are certain seasons of our lives when it can feel like God is not listening. We can picture this barrier, a fortress built by the sorrows of life or our own doubting hearts — a wall off which our prayers seem to bounce. God can feel terribly far away. When we are deep in grief, in pain, in trials, or in the chains of sin, it’s easy to believe the lie: God will not come here.

These are the times when we need to grasp onto what we know is true. Our God is a god of hope and rescuing grace! His story proves these truths. Jesus set aside heavenly splendor to enter an aching world. While on earth, He shared meals with sinners, as we see in Mark 2:13-17. He welcomed and healed lepers like the story found in Matthew 8:1-3. And then He went, beaten, bruised, and bloodied, to Calvary carrying our cross. Jesus is no stranger to hard places. As we read in Psalm 139:7-12, there is no distance He will not go to in order to redeem us:

“Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn,

If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

Even there Your hand will lead me,

And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,

And the light around me will be night,’

Even the darkness is not dark to You,

And the night is as bright as the day.

Darkness and light are alike to You.”

 

Whether we are prone to wander, we’ve been deceived into following a path other than His, or the circumstances of life have driven us to run far in the opposite direction of God’s grace, He makes it clear in His Word that He would move heaven and earth to get us back. In fact, He sent heaven down to earth to rescue us! Moment by moment, with each rising of the sun, He is relentlessly, graciously pursuing us. There is no place He will not go to win us back, He proved it on the cross.

 

“Precious lamb came to redeem us

Heaven’s dawn broke through the night

Just to be with us

You came to earth, yielding Your life

Carried the weight of our sin and strife

Just to be with us

 

Emmanuel, Emmanuel

God is here with us

Emmanuel, Emmanuel

God is here with us, Emmanuel

 

Light has come, healing the broken

You have come with love reaching out just to be with us

The evidence of who You are

Is piercing through the hardest hearts

Just to be with us

 

Now the atmosphere lives and breathes with Your glory

The presence of a Holy God is here

All creation lives and moves in Your presence

The beauty of Your majesty revealed to us

Lord You’re here, here with us

Jesus, Jesus

You are here with us

Jesus, Jesus

You are here with us

Emmanuel”

 

Listen to “Emmanuel” from “Hidden In My Heart, Volume III.”