God with us.

“Fear not” or “Be strong and courageous” have to be some of the most repeated commands in the bible. One reason God always add to such commands is that: He is with us. I personally love how God says it in Isaiah “For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I am the one who helps you.’” (Isaiah 41:13). It does not get any better than that if you ask me! The main reason we should not fear is because God Himself is with us. Unfortunately, this reality has to be said over and over again to us because we live more by what we see instead of by what we don’t see. In other words, we live by sight and not by faith which is contrary to what the Lord would want from us (2 Corinthians 5:7). It is incredible to read the word of God and to see how tireless and patient He is with us. It does not matter how long it takes us to grasp something, if we haven’t gotten it, He continues to repeat Himself. You see this pattern in the Old Testament with the Israelites story and you see the same with us New Testament believers. The nature of God has not changed, He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Today, I want to remind us of the reality that God is with us by looking at specific passages in the word where that truth is amplified as well as the work of Jesus.

The bible starts in the book of Genesis with the words “In the beginning God”. From this statement we can infer that everything started with God because He was in the beginning. He existed before times and He created man, putting him in the Garden of Eden where he would enjoy His fullness. Man enjoyed the fullness of God for a while until sin came in. When man sinned, the beautiful relationship that he had with God was broken and he was banished from the presence of God. This banishment has been a cause for our misery and suffering today. Indeed, sin made us repulsive to God, we had become tainted creatures and because of the Holiness of God, we just could not coexist and from that point, man’s greatest need has always been to return to that state. St Augustine coined this truth very well in this statement: “for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee” (Confessions of St Augustine 1.1.1). You see, God made us for Himself to enjoy Him and the moment we were separated from Him we became restless because we were looking for the One who made us. That search has unfortunately led us to many wrong turns and has caused us a lot of pain because we have been searching in the wrong places: whether it be relationships, careers, family, power, influence, etc. Fortunately for us, God who is merciful and love stepped in to help us and He started by revealing Himself to man. One such man was Abraham whom God called to follow Him. He gave Abraham a promise that He would make him into a great nation and that nation would be His people and He would be their God (Genesis 12:1-3, 17:8). Fast forward hundreds of years later, the nation that came from Abraham is what we know as the Israelites and they became acquainted with the God of their Father through the Commandments, the tabernacle and the instructions for worship they received from God through the man Moses. These instructions were still not enough for them to fully know their God. Despite God showing them on multiple occasions who He was and how powerful He was, they did not follow their God and they kept going after other gods; gods that their hands had made. Obviously this ‘prostitution’ did not please God and He banished them from His presence or rather left them to themselves. But God, being merciful sent many prophets to call His people back to repentance. God also told His people that He would be sending them a messiah, one who would set the captives free and restore that broken relationship with Him (Isaiah 9:6-7). This messiah’s name was Immanuel which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). From the name, it is clear that God wanted to ensure His people knew that He was with them.

We know this messiah as Jesus Christ, the one who died on the cross to restore the broken relationship we had with the Lord, that broken relationship which separated us from God and kept us His enemy. Jesus came to get us to that original state where we would be right with God. How exactly is that relationship restored? First, we are no longer enemies of God because of our sin. Indeed, Jesus took away our sins and gave us His righteousness – you can say he covered us with his righteousness and now when the Father sees us, He sees Jesus. This then means we can approach God like we never could before. Second, we now have the Holy Spirit living in us who is a permanent seal, a guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession (Ephesians 1:14). Third, Jesus gave us eternal life. This is the promise we have in Christ. That original state where death was not part of the equation, Jesus brought us back to it. The death we see today is only temporary, it kills the body but we will be given new bodies and live eternally with the One our hearts longed for, the One we were made for. There is more that can be said about the glorious work of Christ and I would recommend reading the epistles, particularly the books of Ephesians and Colossians but I hope you get my point: Christ came so that we would know the God who is with us. Now I know we do not yet have the complete fulfilment of the promised inheritance we have while on this earth but we have the Spirit of God living in us, He could not be any nearer. This means, we can now hold unto the words of our Father as new creatures who are now living by faith and not by sight, not gratifying the pleasures of the flesh; we can believe the words of God because we know with certainty that when He says “fear not for I am with you” He indeed is with us. Our goal as redeemed creatures is to violently pursue righteousness, the life the Spirit desires. What we were once powerless to do because of our state (Ephesians 2:1), we can now do. We can fight, we can stand strong, we can be courageous, we can shout for joy, we can sing because we are victorious in Christ! Our victory is guaranteed, our victory is firm because Christ has conquered death and he is now seated in the heavenly realms at the right hand of the Father waiting for his bride to be ready for that great marriage of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). I love that God planned all this from the beginning. I love that He ensured the creatures He made would have a way back to Him. God is so good!

In closing, if you find yourself restless, if you find yourself wandering, if you find yourself lost, know that all hope is not lost. In fact, hope is here and is found in Jesus Christ! He alone can turn your mourning into dancing. He can give you meaning, he can give you rest. He promised to do just that to all those who would come to Him (Matthew 11:28). How do you come to him? Just as you are with a repentant heart, acknowledging to him your failings and your sins and then surrendering your life to him. This is not a decision that you will regret making. In fact, there is a whole family waiting for you to join, there is room for everyone. None of us were children of God by nature, we were all adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ. So, today, “if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart”. God is calling you to be restored to your original state where you can enjoy Him. You were made “just for Him” as the popular Christian singer TobyMac penned in his song “Made to love”. I beseech you, do not delay because a time will come when this offer will not be valid anymore, so come to Jesus today. He is waiting at the door of your heart for you to welcome him. Now to you my fellow believer in Christ who is wandering and feeling hopeless, let me encourage you that Christ is still the answer. Surrender to him, run to him, soak yourself in his words, encourage yourself in the Lord like King David did (1 Samuel 30:6), sing psalms and praise songs, declare the word of God to yourself, serve others and pray. As believers, our portion is to live a hopeful life because we have hope. So yes, you might get discouraged but don’t remain in that state because you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. One of my favourite verse in the bible is this: “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Rest in that truth today because this is not any God that is for you, it is the Great I AM, the compassionate and loving God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, the one who is greatly to be feared. So stand back up and continue the race, you are not alone. Amen.