Proverbs 15:29
ESV
“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.”
The thing that turns off Gods leading in our lives is disobedience, sin. Our God will always be next to us no matter where we go, but there's a difference to being next to and being with someone. The Psalmist has said in Psalm 139:8 “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” When it is said of someone that God is with them, it means that they have the Lord on their side. God is an ally to those He is with. God will incline His ear and listen to the prayers of those who live righteously, who follow His commands and walk in His ways. God is proud to be seen with His righteous ones, and loves to listen to their prayers and answer them.
When God is next to someone however, it's similar to what the Psalmist says “If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” God does not support the conduct of the wicked and the fact that they purposefully dwell in hell. In fact, He despises it. Nevertheless, He is always there, whether we acknowledge it or not. He loves the sinner, but abhors the sin. What then is meant by Him being far from the wicked? Well, let's remember that God is light, and more importantly that in Him is no darkness at all. The two can have absolutely no fellowship together, because darkness is the absence of light, therefore they can not be intermingled. However, they can be beside one another. A shadow only casts when light is present. When you look at a shadow, the distinction between the light and the dark is undeniable. God and His relationship with those who make their bed in hell, who follow wicked ways, and deny Christ, is the same way. Though they are polar opposites, they can exist right next to each other, yet it remains the farthest distance in the world.
So if those who are wicked are far from God, then those who are righteous couldn't be any closer! Christ is our light, and when we abide in Him, we abide in the light. As a child of God, my days get to be spent in the freedom of light, and in fellowship with my Father. There is no longer anything or anyone to fear. Those who live in the dark are in a constant state of fear, but for us who have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, we've been given a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. For a long time I thought that because I have the Holy Spirit I shouldn't be subject to troubles and trials, that there shouldnt ever br spiritual battles. No, we have the Holy Spirit to give us power, love, and sound minds to get us through those hardships. I just love how Peter puts it in his first letter, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 1:6-7) That is why God allows our sufferings! Job faced the same thing, we all do. We go through immense battles with the world, ourselves, and the Devil as a Christian, and we must take comfort knowing that God is intimately involved in all of it. Our faith is being purified, our hearts conformed to Christ, and our minds are being renewed through every difficult hour we face. God didn't give us His Spirit to deliver us from trouble, He gave it to deliver us in trouble. We have a promise that as we live in the light as He is in the light, He will never fail hear our prayers nor will He leave us to fight our battles alone.
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