If you had absolute assurance that "the Lord was with you," how would your coming week be affected? What fears would dissipate? What new mission would you take on? What old habits would you break? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, p. 456).
The
assurance that "the Lord is with me" would ironically set
the fantasies of the flesh free. My first stop might be at my
stockbroker. I would be buying fast and loose. Next stop would be to
the lotto counter at 7-11. I would buy 20 tickets knowing that one of
them would surely win the jackpot. Thus assured that God is with me
financially, I would go to a new car dealership and get a sporty
convertible. I would stop by my job and turn in my resignation.
Using my credit card, I would buy tickets for a fantastic world tour.
At this point I may decide to indulge in a new romance with a hot
chick. Yes, having "the Lord with me" would be a great
thing.
A
moment's reflection brings to light an obvious observation: having
"the Lord with you"
has little or nothing to do with conventional ideas of worldly
success. It is worth considering that the person closest to his
heavenly Father, namely Jesus, was crucified. Having God with you is
most fundamentally the gift of having abiding faith in God and in his
principles of love. No matter how discouraging the circumstances,
with God abiding with us we have deep assurance that acts based on
the principles of love in the long run (if not in the short run) will
find acceptance and success in the measurements of God. In this
sense, having "the Lord with you" is the gateway to a
living faith and resultant acts that are always in the end
redemptive.
This
can affect us in several ways. Short-term failures become less
important than long-term successes. We put our trust in this even if
we personally do not live to see the full fulfillment of eternal
promises. Thus immediate fears become less powerful than the fears of
long-term failure and the failure to find meaning in life through
alliance with a living God of love. With this long-term focus our
everyday actions are seen in a new light. In a sense, we replace
short-term worldly fears of failure with a fear of an ultimate far
more important fundamental failure. Such a perspective gives us an
abiding new vision of our daily mission in life. Everything is seen
in a much broader context. This gives us a deep sense of assurance
and steadiness that is simply not possible when our focus is on the
minutia of life. Old habits become much less dear to us. Fresh
objectives give us freedom to transcend the past. Thus, "knowing
that the Lord is with us" decisively expands the depth and
breadth of our perception. "Worldly fears" become
decisively less operative in our lives. We have confidence in knowing
that short-term failures should they occur (and they often do not
since principles of love are essentially more realistic) will be
eternally redeemed if our actions are in the will of God.
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