With You Always

 By: Joanne Viola

“And He said, “Certainly I will be with you.” (Exodus 3:12, NASB)

“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20, NASB)

In the normal course of his day, while tending his father-in-law’s sheep, Moses had an encounter with God.

It was the burning bush moment during which God not only called Moses to be the deliverer of His people, but also brought him assurance.

God identified Himself. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6, NASB). With this declaration, Moses understood God’s power and the promises which had been given to those before him.

God sees. “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings” (Exodus 3:7, NASB). God assured Moses He has seen all the mistreatment and suffering His people had endured. Nothing was hidden from God’s eyes.

God will deliver. “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8, NASB). God assured Moses He was going to deliver His people and bring them to a better place, a land of promise. 

But perhaps the greatest assurance was in these words: “Certainly I will be with you” (Exodus 3:12). God promises His very presence to be with Moses and the people. They would not be going alone.

Jesus, in speaking with His disciples, had explained He would be leaving them and returning to the Father. He commissions them, telling them to make disciples, share the Good News of Jesus, and teach them to obey the commands He has taught.

And then Jesus brings them, and us, this assurance: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus assures them of His Presence with them. These words are just as surely for us today.

“When Christ said ‘always’, He meant to assure us that there is not a day of our lives in which that blessed presence is not with us. It is ours every day and all day long. There does not need to be a moment in which that presence cannot be our experience. This does not depend on what we can do, but on what He undertakes to do. The omnipotent Christ is the omnipresent Christ; the ever present is the everlasting. As surely as He is the Unchangeable One, His presence, as the power of and endless life, will be with each of His servants who trusts Him for it.”

(from God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray, page 231)

No matter what the circumstances may be in our lives, He is right in the middle of the mess with us.

When Jesus said “always”, He meant always.
Trust Him for He is with you.
Always.

 

Photo by Ankhesenamun on Unsplash