Laced With Grace – Christian Devotions

Are you with me?

By Ann Van Hine April 17, 2018 Devotion

I have often commented to friends that I am sure I am enrolled in God’s remedial class. You know the class where God keeps teaching the same lesson various ways until you get it. That isn’t a bad thing. I’m not positive that it is real thing either, but it is the way I feel sometimes.

For example, a couple of years ago in Children’s Bible Quizzing I taught the children lessons on the book of Exodus. The story of Moses with the burning bush is one of my favorites. Moses out in the wilderness doing his job tending the sheep and God shows up. Take your sandals off. You are standing on Holy ground. “I AM WHO I AM.” All great stuff.

 “And God said, “I will be with you.” Exodus 3:12a NIV

At the time what jumped out at me was Moses asking, “Who am I that I should go to the Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God responded “I will be with you…” I loved that response. God didn’t say “Moses, you were the Hebrew baby in the basket, you were the young man in Pharaoh’s court, you are a murder, a shepherd.” God said, “I will be with you.” My Pastor said Moses asked the wrong question. True.  Moses should have asked “who is God?” But even with the wrong question God said, “I am with you.”

“…and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).” Matthew 1:23b NIV

That was an aha moment for me. I realized that the parallel story line running through the Bible besides God’s salvation plan for human kind was that He is with us. Immanuel means God with us. An amazing opportunity after my aha moment lead me to ask a similar question of God. “Who am I that I should speak at …?”  which was also the wrong question, but God answered with “I will go with you.”

I just finished reading The Story of With by Allen Arnold which revealed the same truth again – God is with us but with a slightly different spin on it. I was amazed at how God found another way to reveal the same truth. Sometimes we think we have to do things for God but really, we should do things with God. God is with us, but I need to remember to be with Him. I need to remember to start my day asking what am I doing today with God?

“Stay with God!
Take heart. Don’t quit.
I’ll say it again:
Stay with God.” Psalm 27:14 MSG

 

“This is what it comes down to—staying with God, awakening our hearts, and not giving up. Notice that one command is repeated. Stay with God. I think the psalmist starts and ends with these three words because nothing is more essential. This the foundation of our journey. “With.” That is what it all comes down to. We will either do life with or without God. Nothing is more essential, and, unfortunately, nothing is easier for us to forget when the next shiny opportunity appears. So the psalmist reminds us… stay with God.” Allen Arnold the story of With- A Better Way to Live, Love, & Create page 259

Allen Arnold statement “we will either do life with or without God” applies to Christians as well as nonbelievers. We know God but do we depend on Him totally?

Arnold invites you to spend some time with God on the following questions.

  1. “God, what do You think of me?”
  2. “You’ve given me a specific talent and passion, so why does it often feel like this dream will never become a reality?”
  3. “What dreams for my future do I approach as though it is 100 percent up to me? How can I move from independence to full dependence on You for these desires?”
  4. “Does my validation really come from You, God, or from how others respond (or don’t) to what I offer?”
  5. “God, expose areas of my life where I still cling to control. Help me learn the art of letting go what I don’t control anyway.”

Allen Arnold the story of With – A Better Way to Live, Love, & Create page 265-266

 

 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV

3 thoughts on “Are you with me?”