Morning By Morning #132

Surely I am with you always.

Matthew 28:20

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

It is comforting to know there is Someone who is always the same and always with us—one stable Rock amid the crashing waves of the sea of life.

“O my soul” (Ps. 103:1), don’t set your affections on rusting, moth-eaten, decaying treasures. Set your heart upon Him who is forever faithful to you. Don’t build your house on the shifting sands of a deceitful world, but fix your hopes on this Rock, who even amid driving rain and raging floods will stand immovably secure. I challenge you, “my soul,” to store your treasure in the only truly secure Safe—to store your jewels where you can never lose them.

Place your all in Christ. Fix your affections on His person, your hope on His worth, your trust in His atoning blood, and your joy on His presence, so you can laugh at loss and defy destruction. Remember, every flower in the world’s garden will ultimately fade and wither away, and the day is coming when nothing will remain but the dark, cold earth. And the darkness of death will one day extinguish the candle in your body.

Yet how wonderful to have sunlight once the candle is gone! Death’s dark flood will one day come between you and your possessions, so fix your heart on Him who “will never leave you” (Deut. 31:6). Trust yourself to Him who will go with you through the dark and stormy currents of death’s stream—He who will safely take you to land upon the celestial shore and allow you to sit with Him in heavenly places forever.

Dear distressed soul, go to Him! Tell your secrets to the Friend “who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). Trust all your concerns to Him who can never be taken from you, to Him who “will never leave you,” and to Him who will never let you leave Him.

“Jesus Christ…the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). “Surely I am with you always” is enough for my soul to live on! Let anyone else forsake me.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

What if Jesus told you He was going to leave you? How would you feel?

That is exactly what He once told His disciples: “My children, I will be with you only a little longer…Where I am going, you cannot come” (John 13:33).

Of course, this was quite troubling to the disciples. So Jesus told them,

Do not let your hearts be troubled…I am going…to prepare a place for you…I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am…And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.

John 14:1-3, 16-17

Jesus’ departure did not sound like good news to His disciples, but He told them, “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7).

Believers have the very life of Jesus within them through the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit. “He…put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor. 1:21-22).

I thank You, Lord, for Your Spirit living within me. Thank You for Him who guarantees not only the present with You but also the future!