"With Him"

"With Him"

    "We shall live with Him by the power of God" (II Corinthians 13:4).

    Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ grants to believers the very presence of God.  We live "with Him".  Thus, our Heavenly Father would have us view life in terms of "we" rather than simply "me".  Such blessed truth changes everything as we grow in the grace and knowledge of a Savior who promises "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).  First, we realize in our blessings that there is Someone to thank.  "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17).  That Someone dwells near at hand, nearer than our next breath.  We may therefore live in an attitude of gratitude that causes the pleasant things of life to be far more than happy experiences.  They rather become holy as we acknowledge with thanksgiving the Source of "life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  

    There is also Someone to trust in the challenges, difficulties, and pains of life.  "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).  Always near, but very near in our troubles, the Lord promises to walk with us through valleys that seem dark to our natural senses and understanding, but which actually shine brightly with His compassion and keeping.  "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isaiah 43:2).  Trouble tempts us to feel alone, and to wonder, "How will I get through this?"  Truth responds, "I do not face this alone.  My Lord dwells and walks with and within me.  We will get through this."  

   We also navigate the everyday, seemingly mundane realities of life in the light of "we shall live with Him".  Remembrance of such assurance leads to all things becoming sacred as the Lord's realized presence reveals the sanctified holiness of every moment.  Life is an altar, a blessed scene of grace that beckons us to continually sacrifice any notion of living as if we are alone.  We are not, and the forever that stretches before us glimmers with the presence of the perfectly faithful One who promises, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).  Thus, the mundane becomes the quietly miraculous as "We" transforms everyday experiences into eternal wonders of a life lived with Somebody.

   Finally, we do well to always remember the cost of the abiding presence of our Lord.  "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46).  On the cross of Calvary, the Savior who had forever known the presence of His Father and the Holy Spirit suffered the horror of their absence as He died for us.  Thus, to the degree He was forsaken, the trusting sons and daughters of God in Christ will never be alone.  Time and eternity shine with the glory of "We", obtained for us by the highest cost ever remitted.  This constitutes our Lord's presence as a perpetual opportunity to remember not only the assurance of "I am with thee", but also the wonder of "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3).  "We" - always we because the Lord Jesus once knew the sorrow of forsaken aloneness that means we will never be alone...

"I am continually with Thee."

(Psalm 73:23)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." 

(John 4:23-24)