Theologically Loaded Catch-Lines, Part 2: What Does It Mean for God to “Be with Us”?

In this post I resume my series of blogposts on historically/theologically freighted phrases/clauses/mantras that have become cliché in contemporary Christian-speak—lines that are intrinsically innocuous (i.e., the words themselves are unobjectionable) but sometimes mask ideas that are not. 

The second of these catch-lines is the request for God to be “with us.” This line pops up routinely in some liturgies: “God be with you”…“and also with you.” A few of my readers may hear the phrase in such contexts, but most do not. But this line is also heard regularly in less formal settings (prayer meetings and such) in churches of all stripes: “Lord, please be with Frank in the hospital tonight. And Lord, be near especially to Jennifer at the funeral tomorrow. And finally, be with Andrea as she travels to Florida on Friday.” 

The expectation of God to be “with” or “near” his people, we note firstly, is intrinsically unobjectionable. Prayers to this effect appear regularly in the Bible (e.g., 1 Kings 1:37; Rom 15:33; 2 Thess 3:16; etc.); further, God’s promises to be “with” or “near” his people have a highly motivational and encouraging effect (Ps 73:23, 28; 91:15; Isa 43:2; etc.). The question, then, is what the Scripture-writers meant when they spoke of God’s “nearness,” and what they expected from God in answer to requests for it. 

Let’s begin with what God’s nearness is not:

• First, it goes without saying that divine proximity is constant. God fills the universe with the whole of his being (Jer 23:24, etc.). So we can’t expect him to answer our prayers by suddenly being someplace where he is currently absent, or by swelling up to more completely fill a given space, such as “my heart.” That idea is theologically tenuous.
• Second, we should not expect God to make an ineffable manifestation of his invisible self in answer to prayers for his “nearness.” A few years ago a pair of “neurotheologians” developed an experimental God helmet that created the illusion of a “presence” in a room. Weird. On so many levels, weird. And yet…I’m not sure that this notion is all that far removed from the expectation that many have when they pray for God to be “near.” But here’s the thing: God has created mankind to receive revelation in public, objective, and propositional ways. Not by making himself existentially “felt.” The latter is the combination of bad theology and an overactive imagination.

So what does the nearness of God entail? And if we pray for it, what should we expect from him?

• Although we must agree that God’s presence thoroughly “fills heaven and earth,” there is a sense in which God is not uniformly manifested in all places. He is manifested “in heaven” (Matt 6:9) in a way he is not, say, in the sewer line. His is ontologically “in” everyone, but his sanctifying paraclesis is manifested in believers in ways unknown to unbelievers (John 14:17). So it would seem valid to pray that the sanctifying influence and visible fruit of God’s Spirit would be more visibly manifested in believers—not such that they have a mystical “sense of the divine,” but such that they more self-consciously reflect Christian thought, affection, and action.
• The Scriptures also speak of God’s “nearness” in terms of reminders of God’s providential presence. A timely recollection of God’s gracious and benevolent character may motivate a believer (Matt 28:20) or comfort him (Ps 139). Reminders that God is observing our day-to-day affairs can motivate proper industry (Col 3:22). Reminders of God’s justice and faithfulness can cultivate courage and impel ministry (Josh 1:5ff; Acts 18:10). And so forth. Such ruminations on the divine presence should not be described in terms of mystical or existential euphoria (though our affections surely may be stirred by such thoughts), but in rather ordinary, intellectual terms: I know and trust that God is there, and this reminder can be eminently bracing. Not surprisingly, we find prayers to this end regularly in Scripture (e.g., Rom 15:33; 2 Thess 3:16).
• God’s nearness to believers, particularly in the OT arrangement, also speaks to God’s material blessing in response to obedience. God repeatedly promises to be “with” Law-abiding believers by granting success or abundance (e.g., Gen 39:3, 21). Such statements are more prominent in the OT economy because the covenantal obedience/blessing rubric there is more visible and “earthy”; still, requests for God to “be with” someone in the sense of tangible blessings today are surely not out of order. God, we find, is “with” those who think and act in obedience to God (Phil 4:8–9) and draws near to those who draw near to him (Jas 4:8)—not in an ontological sense, but by bestowing manifold favors on the faithful in their hour of need.
• God’s presence “with” believers in the biblical record can also reflect God’s exertion of supernatural power to accomplish the extraordinary: military exploits (1 Sam 18:12–14), miracles (Acts 10:38), or prophetic utterances. Requests for God to “be with” us in this sense must be tempered by one’s general understanding of revelatory and other supernatural phenomena in the NT era (I understand these functions to be suspended today).

To conclude, then, properly chastened and informed requests for God to “be with” us can be quite appropriate…but not all such requests fall so pleasantly on God’s ears. May God give us the grace to purge our prayers of ill-informed and vacuous notions of divine “nearness” without abandoning the idea entirely.