Your Lord is With You

[Sue J Love]

When life throws its curve balls at us, which it will, our natural reaction may be to immediately feel fear. Satan will use these occasions to try to get us to doubt God or to feel as though we are without resource. He will try to get us to feel as though our circumstances have control over our lives, rather than the other way around. He will try to convince us, as well, that humans have some kind of power over us over which God has no power or control. He will paint God as weak, though as compassionate and loving, too, and he will try to convince us that all God can do is to comfort us in our difficult times, but that he can’t do anything to change our circumstances or to strengthen us through them. In other words, Satan will try to get us to believe that our God is impotent rather than omnipotent.

During these times of difficulty and trial, though, we must ward off Satan’s lies and put on the armor of God with which to fight off all Satan’s evil attacks and his wicked schemes against us. We must know that our God – our Lord Jesus Christ – is completely sovereign over all that he has made. Nothing can touch us but what God allows it, and he allows it for a purpose, and that he will see us through it or else he will remove (deliver) us from it. He will never leave us or abandon us. He’s right there with us. He sees what we are going through. It didn’t catch him by surprise. And, he has a plan for it all. So, we need to trust him, rest in him, believe in him, and do what he says to do. We need to stand strong on the Word of Truth, and fight off Satan’s lies, and trust in the strength and power of the Lord to move in our circumstances in such a way as to bring honor and glory to His name.

Your Lord is With You
An Original Work / August 14, 2016

Based off Various Scriptures

Fear not for your Lord is with you.
He will not leave you, nor will He abandon you.
When you walk through valleys of life’s rough ways,
You must fear no evil, for God is near.
Be of courage, then, and be not dismayed,
For your Lord is with you throughout your days.
Fear not for your Lord is with you.
He will not leave you, nor will He abandon you.

Trust Him with your life and witness.
He’ll go before you, and He will prepare the way.
The Lord is our helper, so we’ll not fear.
He will strengthen us. He sees all our tears.
Do not be afraid, but to God do pray,
And the peace of God will be yours today.
Trust Him with your life and witness.
He’ll go before you, and He will prepare the way.

My God, He is my Rock and my Shield
And the Horn of my salvation, whom I praise.
He reached down from heaven and rescued me;
Drew me out of waters so deep I’d sink.
My God turned my darkness into His light;
Opened up my blinded eyes, gave me sight.
My God, He is my Rock and my Shield
And the Horn of my salvation, whom I praise.

 

[B-A-C]

Good word.
The Lord is with us. But I think many misunderstand what that means.

God was with the Israelites when they were wandering around in the desert for 40 years. But they were still wandering around the desert.
They still built a golden calf idol, even while He was with them.
They still murmered and complained even when He was with them.
And even though He was with them, no one in the generation that left Egypt got to enter the promised land. (wasn't it "promised"?)

God was with Jonah, but He still ended up in a fish for a while.

God was with the Israelites when they entered Canaan, the won many battles without really doing much at all.
But when they let sin in the camp, God let their enemies defeat them, even though He was with them.

God is with us... but are we with Him?

Just because God is with us, doesn't mean there aren't consequences for doing certain things.

 

[Sue J Love]

Good word.
The Lord is with us. But I think many misunderstand what that means.

God was with the Israelites when they were wandering around in the desert for 40 years. But they were still wandering around the desert.
They still built a golden calf idol, even while He was with them.
They still murmered and complained even when He was with them.
And even though He was with them, no one in the generation that left Egypt got to enter the promised land. (wasn't it "promised"?)

God was with Jonah, but He still ended up in a fish for a while.

God was with the Israelites when they entered Canaan, the won many battles without really doing much at all.
But when they let sin in the camp, God let their enemies defeat them, even though He was with them.

God is with us... but are we with Him?

Just because God is with us, doesn't mean there aren't consequences for doing certain things.

Truly our relationship with God/Jesus is different from that of those who were under the Old Covenant relationship God had with his people. In the Old Testament, a physical nation of people were God's people. They were Israelites because they physically descended from Abraham. They didn't choose to be Israelites, they just were by physical birth. Yet, these were the people God choose to reveal himself to and to draw to himself, and through whom the Christ would come. They were given the prophets and God's leadership and protection over them. Yet, many did not have faith, and they disobeyed God and his commandments, and they did not enter the Promised Land, which is a prefiguring of our future home in heaven.

Today we are not physically born as Christians. While it is true that the only way we can become Christians is by God choosing us and calling us, still we have to choose to believe. If we had no choice, there would not be all these directives in scripture telling us to believe, and warning us against unbelief. When we truly believe in Jesus his Spirit comes to dwell within us. Thus, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit/of God, and God lives within us, so he not only is with us, but he is in us because of his grace, and by faith, which is also a gift from God, but one we must appropriate to our own lives.

Yet, this belief is not just an acknowledgement of what Christ did for us and who he is, but faith in Jesus means death to sin (dying with Christ to sin) and being resurrected with him, of the Spirit, in newness of life, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. If we say we have fellowship with God, but we walk in darkness (wickedness), we are liars. If we walk according to the flesh we will die, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live. If we say we know God or we love God, but we do not love other humans, and we do not obey Christ and his Word and we continue living sinful lifestyles, then we don't really know God the Bible says.

So, although many call themselves Christians, if they do not have true biblical faith in Jesus Christ, God is not in them and he is not with them. He is in and with those who have truly been born of the Spirit of God in regeneration, who have repented of their sins, been crucified with Christ in death to sin and been resurrected with Christ in newness of life - who no longer walk (conduct their lives) according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. This is not to say we live in sinless perfection, though, so while it is true that God is with us, there are consequences to sin. God will discipline us because he loves us if we are his.

So, you pose a good question: "God is with us... but are we with Him?" If we are not with him at all, though, he may not be with us. There has to have been a transformation of our inner man of the Spirit of God in which we died to our old lives and we now live and walk in the Spirit. I am not saying we can't rebel, for a time, and need to be brought back, but the scriptures are real clear on what true faith constitutes and it all comes down to lifestyle, but not sinless perfection. If we are not with God/with Jesus at all, and we are just doing our own thing and going our own way, then chances are pretty good that God is not with us, because he is not in us, because we don't really know him. But, we should ask ourselves if we are totally with Him, sold out to Him and submitted to his will and purposes for our lives, or are we kind of riding the fence or maybe dabbling in things contrary to God's design for our lives. If so, then we need to repent of our sin, because there are consequences.