"I am with you always" - Russ Vickers
“I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS”
Sometimes we get out of bed in the morning and things do not always go according to plan. I saw on social media this morning a woman who complained about the traffic here in town. For many of us, this is a reality. There are other things that could happen to us. It could be that you did not sleep well the night before. Perhaps the electricity in the house was out, or maybe the water was shut off for some reason. It could be that our car will not start. Or, you have to drive to work or school in the rain. Any number of things could go wrong. We often say on Mondays, “I wish I could have stayed in the bed this morning.”
What keeps many people up at night is worry and anxiety. Family members struggle with health issues. You might have project deadlines or an appointment to keep. Maybe one of your employees has resigned. Our minds can get filled with such worries that we stop focusing on Christ and what He has done for us.
Do you remember the account in Mark chapter 4 when Jesus was in a boat with His disciples on the Sea of Galilee? A great storm arose and the waves crashed so hard into the boat that they began to fill the boat with water. And what was Jesus doing? He was in the back of the boat asleep on a cushion. The fearful disciples said, “Teacher, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38 – ASV). What happened next was astounding. “And he awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye fearful? have ye not yet faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:39-41).
In the Sermon on the Mount, we have some wonderful words for living that came from our Lord Jesus Christ. In first-century Palestine, there was a great deal of poverty and misery to go around. He tells us in Matthew 6:25, “Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?” Each day we wonder what is for dinner or what we are going to wear that day or the next. Jesus then gave an object lesson centering around God’s care for His creation. “Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26). Jesus then shows how futile it is to worry about things of this life. “And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life?” (Matthew 6:27). The Lord again goes back to the example of creation concerning the flowers in the field. “And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30).
According to Matthew 6:32, the Lord knows that we need the basic essentials of life. But then He says something wonderful in verse 33 that can lift our spirits even today: “But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The idea is to put the Lord first in our lives and He will supply us with what we need. He concludes by stating that we are to take care of today’s troubles and not worry or be anxious over tomorrow. Tomorrow often has enough trouble.
We need to realize that the Lord is still there even in the midst of our worries and struggles in this life. If the Lord can calm a storm on the sea, He can surely calm the storms of our lives. What mankind needs to do is take a long look at the cross. Many of our problems arise when we take our eyes off the cross. In the core of the storm, we often wonder where the Lord went. We ask, “Why does Jesus seem so far away?” The fact is simply this: He never left and the cross is still there! The cross of Christ has always been there. But do we take the time to notice? Do we take the time to let the Lord calm us and ease our fears? Our precious Savior would say to those who worry and fret, “I am here for you, and I have always been here with you.” That is why He said to the disciples before His ascension, “And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus Christ is there for those who love Him and seek to do His will first more than anything else.
Are we willing to turn our worries over to God in prayer? This is how we receive God’s comfort. We need to pray that God will guide us through the storms of life and that our eyes would be open to see the cross and know without a doubt that He is there for us.