The Same God Is With You Now-2 - Friday November 23, 2012
I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20
When my close friend became more distant in our friendship, I felt very alone. In His goodness, God reminded me that He, the One who had brought me into this wilderness, was going with me through the trial. Jesus said, "I am with you always." I wasn't alone. He pressed into my heart that there would never be a time in my whole life that I would be alone.
Recently, I heard this same truth in a radio song. I reminisced on the lessons God had taught me in my desert: "The same God who was with you then is with you now."
On days when I was sad, Jesus was beside me saying that He understood sadness. In His own lonely wilderness, the Garden of Gethsemane, He had cried loudly. He also had wept at the grave of Lazarus. Also, because of my grief, I began to understand His pain of wanting friends back. I wanted my friend back, but He had wanted me back so much that He had gone to the cross to restore me to himself. What a friend and lover! With Jesus beside me, my wilderness journey became a place of seeing His love.
On days when I was feeling devalued, Emmanuel reminded me that I was His valuable princess. I was a child of the King and even if people were fickle, that didn't change anything. I was still accepted by God, period. He would never forsake me.
"God with us" is with you, too. You can trust that the Spirit of Jesus understands and sympathizes with your pain. The same God who brings you into a trial is with you throughout the trial!
Submitted by:
Rita Bergen
Lee's Summit Community Church
Lee's Summit, Missouri
One-Year Reading Plan:
Ezekiel 45:13-46:24
1 Peter 1:13-2:10
Psalms 119:33-48
Proverbs 28:11
[Read
Online]
© 2024 Great Commission Association of Churches, Inc All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Online Bible Services provided by
The Bible Gateway (TM) a service of
Gospel
Communications Network.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.