The Comfort of His Presence
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. (Deut. 31:6)
How great is our need to continually live in the presence of the Lord. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us, but often it is we who forget His promises. We drift into fits of thoughts as though we are all alone, besieged by doubts, assailed by the enemy, forgotten and cast aside. Yet these thoughts are lies, planted by our enemy, and thy are far from the truth. God is with us even when we do not think He is.
God made our hearts to live continually in the reality of His presence, to draw close to Him in worship, to rest in His eternal love, to not fear the darkness for it is as light to Him, to not fret over things beyond us for there is nothing beyond Him.
I exchanged emails lately with some pastor friends who are going through very painful periods of rejection, where they have been asked by their churches to find another position of service. I have seen them struggle with the entire situation — one is tempted to become bitter, the other is wrestling with the sin of self-pity. But they are good men and I believe they will both pull through these difficult days and emerge victorious.
They have made me think of how much we desire human friendship, comforting conversation, and affirming words. We do need one another — we need love and acceptance, and a hope for our future. We do a service to the body of Christ when we pick one another up off the floor of defeat, and love one another into becoming stronger and better people.
But the best healer of all is the Lord Himself, and it is He who we truly need, for He is the One who is able to prepare a table of blessing in our hearts even in the presence of our enemies. There will be times in our lives when all we have to stand upon is the promise of God that He will never leave us or forsake us, but if we embrace these words with faith we find that they are enough to awaken our souls to life and to a renewed hope.
Tonight if you feel forsaken, trust that it is only a feeling. If you have trusted in Christ for your salvation then God will never forsake you. Rest in Him. He is there.
