I Am with You

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:
Acts 23 (click the link)


KEY VERSE:
The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” (Acts 23:11, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
I love what we see in the Scripture. I love envisioning the reality of what took place that night deep inside the Roman barracks. During a tumultuous time of his life, the Lord graciously "stood near Paul" and spoke courage into his heart.

A number of years ago, the Lord graciously drew near to me in a similar way to this, and it was an experience that literally changed my life.

At the time I was probably in my early to mid-20s and I had been injured roughly 5-7 years.

At the time of my injury, I was 18 years old and totally clueless. I did not fully understand the severity of my paralysis. I was filled with a sense of teenage invincibility and completely naïve concerning my ability to regain my strength and ability to walk. I assumed that my paralysis was similar to a sports injury—through determination, commitment to rehab, and hard work, I would overcome my disability.

The first few of years after my injury, I slowly regained a significant amount of strength and movement. At some point, however, my recovery plateaued and I began to grow discouraged.

"Discouraged" is probably an understatement. I became extremely frustrated with life and with God. I had done everything I needed to do, so I thought.

I had worked as hard as I could with my rehab. I had put my faith in Jesus for healing, just like the disabled folks in the Gospels. I prayed with faith and diligence for multiple hours each day. I read my Bible religiously and shared my testimony with literally thousands of teenagers and adults. 

Why hadn't God done his part? Why hadn't he come through for me and restored my body?

I had been a good little Christian soldier and when things didn't work out the way I thought they would, my faith began to crumble and my frustrations began to build.

One night, while lying in bed, I began to share all my frustrations with God. In no uncertain terms, I told him that I was angry and frustrated and lonely and hurt and afraid and hacked off that I was still stuck in a broken, crippled body. As my rantings went on, my feelings grew more and more intense.

Somewhere along the way, I realized that something was different. I couldn't put my finger on it, but a growing sense of what I'll describe as "heaviness" began to build in my heart. My room became filled with a palpable sense of "presence," and an inner sense of warmth slowly began to build within me. I did not see a light or hear a voice or receive a vision, but I somehow knew that God was with me.

Mysteriously, all of my frustrations and anger slowly began to dissipate and in their place grew an intense sense of peace and courage and contentment. For the first time in my life, I think, I understood that I was not alone.

A sense of "experience" stayed with me through the night and for several days afterward. I did not know what lay in my future, but I knew—I knew deep in my core—that God was with me… And was filled with a peace that told me his presence and companionship was all I'd ever need.

Since that experience, I've gone through several periods of frustration and doubt. But the memory of that night has stuck with me and a sense of contentment has resided in my heart to this day.

………

God's presence brings courage and contentment.

I know this not only from personal experience, but because of the biblical stories of God's interaction with man. The Apostle Paul's experience of God's nearness in Acts 23 is just one of dozens and dozens of such experiences recorded in Scripture.

Throughout all of human history, the voice of God resounds with absolute assurance: "I AM WITH YOU." This news does not come to us as some intellectual proposition we must accept at face value. It is not bound up in academic doctrine packaged for religious scholars, nor in mysterious rumors of supernatural activity in celestial arenas.

Instead, when we open the Bible we see that it is a reality that unfolds before us in breathtaking detail, mediated through the actual experience of individuals, families, tribes, cities, nations, and generations. Over and over God has said "I AM WITH YOU."

Genesis 26:24; Genesis 28:15; Exodus 3:12; Joshua 3:7; Judges 6:16; 1 Chronicles 17:2; Isaiah 41:9-10; Jeremiah 1:7-8; Jeremiah 30:10-11; Zephaniah 3:17; Haggai 1:13; Matthew 28:20; Acts 18:9-10; Revelation 21:3-4; and on and on and on the list could go.

The Bible does not simply tell us about the presence of God, it shows us the active presence of God deeply and permanently embedded in all the smells, tastes, touches, sights, and sounds of human life.

Over and over, this reality is played out in stories, poems, carefully preserved histories, records of cultural systems, details of prophetic revelations, speeches, letters, songs, and prayers.

The Scripture weaves the involvement of God through the intimacies of birth and death, lovemaking and betrayal, weddings and funerals, labor and rest, warring and peacemaking, wealth and poverty, hunger and thirst, tears and laughter. 

Across thousands of years with wave upon wave of names and faces and recurring events, the Bible threads God's patient words of love and faithfulness: "I AM WITH YOU."

Let us believe this and be filled with peace and courage and contentment.


WHO AM I?
My name is Tres Sansom, and I love to sit outside in the sun and read. My father says that I am a "human solar panel" and Sky Streety claims that I am part reptile. This is because I enjoy sitting in the sun when I'm outside. The warm rays make me feel good… and I get the added benefit of Vitamin D… which “Bingo!” also makes me feel good. While basking in the sun, a few of my favorite authors to read are Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, Eugene Peterson, and N.T. Wright.