The ‘Ever-present’ God
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Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God
4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
9 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”
10 See, the sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young. -
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
"The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God, and the church is famishing for want of [God’s] presence. To enter the Presence in spiritual experience [is] to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged." A. W. Tozer - The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine
We always live in God's omnipresence (Ps 139:8 "If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there." But there are times in prayer, bible reading and in worship that we actually sense His presence. Within each human there is a created yearning for that presence. It is a thirst or longing, as a deer pants for the water brook (Psalm 42:1 NKJV). God promised Moses (Exodus 33:14): "My presence will go with you." Moses sought something deeper than knowledge of God’s omnipresence. He asked: "Let me see Your glory" (Exodus 33:18). He was not content with knowledge and understanding, he longed for experience.… actual encounter with God. Today we may express this as an awareness of God’s gracious presence. See Exodus 33:12-23.
Have you sensed the otherness of God, his presence? For example, in worship? When we pray, read the Word or worship, we desire to meet with the Lord, and that longing is reciprocal (delights).
In our fellowships today it is not new ideas or initiatives but fresh encounters with the living God. A life-changing glimpse of His awesome presence, awe and wonder. A glimpse of his compassion, goodness and mercy that follows us all our days (Psalm 23). His loving kindness that is better than life itself (Psalm 63:3,4).
Isaiah 40 begins with words of comfort. In this chapter, Isaiah gives 3 aspects of God's ever-presence: Comfort of his Presence, The power, The tenderness.
The Comfort of His Presence
The Power of his Presence
The Tenderness of his Presence
The Comfort of His Presence
In Isaiah 40v1, the prophet begins with the words ‘Comfort my people prepare the way for the Lord’ (v1,2)
These are words of comfort to weary people - people going through hard times. The context for the people who this was first written to was a people in exile. It is still so relevant for us here today.
If someone offers you words of comfort it is right to ask who offered those words and can they truly help us. If someone says, ‘I’ve got your back’ it is best to look and see if they are actually reliable.
At the time of my accident a crowd gathered around me saying words of comfort, hold on, you'll be alright - but they were just words.
There was a doctor who scurried down the bank to tend to my caring - he was able to deliver comfort a the time. He was able to say ‘I’ve got your back.’ He was a Godsend. I actually met him a year later.
At my darkest moment I also heard words of comfort that I could depend on. It was words of the Lord from Isa 41:10 ‘I am with you.’ Those words kept me going until I got to the haven of intensive care at Whitehaven Hospital in the Lake District. There was a nurse in ICU who stayed with me constantly, hand-held, reassuring words – flew by helicopter to SIU Wakefield – a very comforting presence.
In Isaiah 40v29 ‘He gives strength to the weary, increases the power of the weak.’ These comforting words tell us our God is an ever-present with you always Lord. That presence meant everything to me. The little New Testament, a prize from Ahorey Presbyterian Church, survived my accident. In the weeks that followed, words of comfort dropped from those pages every day, like Hebrews 13v5 ‘I will never leave you.’ Isa 30:15 “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Ps 33:20 ‘We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.’ Isa 58:8 ‘your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly, you're vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.’
When things happen, we have a choice - run to God or to run away from him. ‘Lord I need you, hold me fast.’ That was my response. If you run away - saying, ‘there can't be a God because this has happened to me’ and we try and work it out for ourselves but we cant, many things are beyond us. ‘Let go & let God’
In Isaiah 40 the Lord says - don't look at the issue, don't look within - look to me your ‘ever-present help in times of trouble,’ Ps 46v1. Ever-present helper: there is comfort in his presence.
My experience from the ravine of Honister Pass was that he was present, prompting verses and prayers in my mind. The name of Jesus was like ointment, a one word prayer that kept me alive (Song of Songs 1:3). After the accident and eight months in hospital, during that time chaplains, friends, family all visited and brought the Lord’s comforting presence to me.
Then, in time, the Lord has been able to use those circumstances in his service. He called me to be a chaplain in the NHS and Hospice - bringing words of comfort to turn to Jesus. None of this would be true if his presence is not true. There is comfort in his presence.
The Power of his Presence
Secondly, the power of his presence. Isaiah 40:9 ‘You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid, say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God’ 10 The sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.’
Isaiah 40:12 Depicts God's power and his greatness. Gives us pictures. He measures the oceans in the hollow of his hand, he weighs the mountains and hills on scales. It is a picture of God almighty - beyond our understanding. Oceans are vast, waves are powerful, see the storms Darragh (December 2024), Éowyn (January 2025) powerful. I have been knocked out of my wheelchair by the force of a wave. Mountains are colossal, and we are invited to imagine God walking with the mountains in two carrier bags to put them on the scales to be weighed. Isaiah 40:28 ‘Do you not know the Lord is an everlasting God- he will not grow weary and increases the power of the weak….Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.’
After my recovery from the accident and subsequent discharge from hospital, I experienced a negative reaction to unanswered prayer for my healing. I lost sight of God's greatness. I began to question his power. Self-pity took hold. I questioned whether the almighty God could be personal with everyone. So my prayers went like this - you don't really know me you don't see the tears I cry. Isa 40:13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counsellor? That’s what I was doing giving counsel to the Lord. The Lake of Tears was his answer to me. (Read excerpt from Lake of Tears.)
Lake of tears is a picture of God’s greatness - a bit like, he holds the oceans in his hands. He holds our tears in a container - a lake of tears. Ps 56:8. ‘You keep track of my misery. Put my tears in your leather container. Are they not recorded in your scroll?’ NET
This leads us to his tenderness.
The Tenderness of his Presence
Notice what the mighty God does with his power. (v11) ‘He gathers his lambs and holds them close to his heart.’ That's what the Lord is like. Tender and compassionate. He invites you and I to call him father – Abba (Rom 8:15). Dad - it is a family matter. Not only does God want a personal relationship with us (as a father to a child) but we find in his presence he is tender and lowly of heart.
NB. Isaiah 40:1, it is not necessary to repeat the word comfort for this command to make sense. By repeating comfort, comfort there is a tenderness conveyed rather like the way you would say ‘there-there’ to a child who is distressed or ‘it's OK it's OK’ to someone in tears. The prophet Isaiah voices the words of God and these are emotional words this is God longing to connect with the people being ‘with us’ and comforting us in our pain.
Christian here today no matter how small and weak you feel, here at today, you can know his tender presence. You are not like a rugby ball knocked out of the runner's hand. You are held secure close to his heart. Isaiah 40:11 ‘He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.’ This is personal, the ever-present God not God from a distance. He holds you fast, close, it is an embrace not a straight jacket - that is how he is present with you now and ever shall be - close to his heart.
Conclusion
If you are not a Christian, I hope you will be drawn into his presence today. God wants to hold you ‘close to his heart (Isaiah 40v11).’
Whether you are a Christian or not, no matter how strong or feeble you feel - know this; in the presence of God you are ‘carried’ close to his heart.
How can we experience God’s ever-presence?
1. Isaiah 55:1 simply says, ‘Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters… 2 Listen diligently to me…7Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near….
In these verses, God is pleading with his people to come to the true fountain of life. “Listen diligently” (v. 2) is a call for us to focus on Him, with undivided attention. Seek our compassionate God (v. 7).
2. Long for, yearn, ache for God’s with you always presence in word and worship.
3. Be open to the supernatural of God's presence.
4. Rest in his peace that the world cannot give. Be patient, he is also in the waiting.
Psalm 27:14 - "Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord." Waiting in this way is not passive but active. Trusting in His timing and finding strength in His presence even during quiet times and in hard times.
We know what Jesus did to get close to you. What are you going to do to get close to Jesus? Come, seek, longing, rest, wait? Have you a longing for his presence where the taste is sweeter than honey (Psalm 19:10).
To be in Your presence, To sit at Your feet,
Where Your love surrounds me, And makes me complete.
This is my desire, O Lord, This is my desire. This is my desire, O Lord, This is my desire.
To rest in Your presence, Not rushing away;
To cherish each moment, Here I would stay.
This is my desire, O Lord, This is my desire. This is my desire, O Lord, This is my desire. Noel Richards
