Matthew 28:20 "...I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." Have you ever had a moment where you didn't feel like God was near? It's hard to remember this truth when the waves of oppression are rising, but that doesn't change the truth, God is always with us.
I found myself reflecting on this fact shortly after witnessing the Holy Spirit touch a woman's heart during a phone call earlier this month. I was calling a phone provider to get my phone setup, and after getting transferred from department to department for an hour or so I finally got connected with someone. I told the woman why I was calling and how I just wanted help. She kindly apologized for the mix up and said she'd resolve my issue but as she spoke, the Holy Spirit told me that she has depression. After everything was taken care of, the Holy Spirit started tugging on my heart to ask her about her depression and to pray for her.
With the thought of sounding a bit crazy in the back of my head, I cleared my throat and asked her if she was a Christian. She said happily responded, "yes" I told her God revealed to me me she was struggling with some sadness and I asked her if that was the case. And after one of the longest seconds of my life, she took a brief pause and said, "yup". I asked if I could pray for her, and after she agreed I began to intercede. I could feel the unfiltered love God has toward this woman, I began to speak life into her walk and told her that God is right there with her. I told her how much God loved her, and for her not to give up because God is using her situation to testify of his goodness.
I could tell her responses were limited because of work, but her voice completely changed. Her voice sounded like someone who just won a marathon! After the phone call ended, I was amazed. I just witnessed God just touch the heart of his child during the most mundane part of life, work. When we go to work one of the last things on our mind is, "I'm hoping to get a word from the Lord as I make my phone calls." And as someone who's shared in the battlefield of technical customer support, phone calls are one of the last things you're looking forward to! But God's plans are greater than ours, the truth is God can reveal himself at any time or place and no matter if we feel him, we can't get discouraged.
Discouragement is a weapon the enemy loves the most, it sucks the life out of us. It convinces us that things will never change, it says things like, "you're not good enough to be used by God" but that's where the enemy is right! The truth is things will never change, God has always chosen the weak to overpower the strong, the earth will always be filled with His glory! Things will never change, each day testifies of it's mighty creator, the birds sing praise to their maker, the best selling book in all human history (the bible) is constantly proclaiming the never-ending, all-encompassing, promise-keeping, everlasting, chain-breaking, unfailing love of the galaxy maker, JESUS CHRIST!
The truth is, we aren't good enough, AND WE NEVER WILL BE, Satan isn't the only one who knows this truth! The angles in heaven know this, the cherubim at God's throne know this, king David knew this, prophet Elisha new this, apostle Peter learned the hard way, and the elders in heaven knew it! The bible tells us so, Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" Jesus is the only one who is good enough! That should be a weight off our shoulders, it's the blessed reassurance that your goodness didn't quality you and your mistakes won't disqualify you! God is faithful to his word, and his promises towards us are mighty if we'll receive it!
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:29-39)