The Inescapable God

When I went to get the link for Psalm 139 I noticed the heading which it is given - The Inescapable God. It is one of my favorites but today what struck me was just how much time the author spends adoring God before moving on to mention the trouble that is at hand - some pretty nasty enemies.

I have used this Psalm in many situations but I found myself being led to wonder just how much adoration we do most of the time. There is a way which children often are taught to pray with the acrostic A.C.T.S. - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and then, and only then, Supplication. Hmmmm.....I know my prayers often sound a little more like a shopping list than an acknowledgement of God's  greatness and sheer gratitude for that.

Psalm 139 does many things and one of them is to remind us of the context in which we should try to live. God is inescapable and that is both a challenge and a comfort - but more than that - we should delibarately acknowledge the fact that God is everything and everywhere and do so often.

There is something in the very acts of adoration and thanksgiving which can bring us to a whole new place, and a better place from which to ask. Confession is slammed in the middle of these two - it is often acknowledged as "putting right" and so it is - but the other two are as well - they are a contextualizing of ourselves and the life we live - from that place of being truly who we are before God we can much better deal with the problems which beset us. With this discipline, finding God in the rocky places becomes easier because our familiarity with God is so much greater.

Inescapable is a good word but perhaps has connotations of pursuit - this is not always bad - to have a God who chases us when we leave - but another angle is ever-present - from height to depth - always and everywhere. Try saying that every day before you pray - God you are always and everywhere - it changes everything!