With Us And For Us Psalms 46:1 Psalms 73:23-26 Zephaniah 3:17 Hebrews 13:5-6 Deuteronomy 31:6 Deuteronomy 31:8 Jeremiah 23:24 John 14:15-18 John 16:5-7 Romans 8:31-39 09.12.16

WITH US AND FOR US

BREAD

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Psalms 46:1 (NIV)

23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.   Psalms 73:23-26 (NIV)

17 The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.  Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”  Hebrews 13:5-6 (NIV)

6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”   Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)

8 “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”  Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)

24 “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.   Jeremiah 23:24 (NIV)

15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”   John 14:15-18 (NIV)

5 “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7 But I tell you the truth: 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 16:5-7 (NIV)

31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:31-39 (NIV)

BUTTER

“God is for us. But, O my brethren, though this brings in the context, it is impossible for any human speech to bring out the depth of the meaning of how God is for us. He was for us before the worlds were made: he was for us, or else he never would have given his Son; he was for us even when he smote the only-begotten, and laid the full weight of his wrath upon him—he was for us, though he was against him; he was for us when we were ruined in the fall—he loved us notwithstanding all; he was for us when we were against him, and with a high hand were bidding him defiance: he was for us, or else he never would have brought us humbly to seek his face. He has been for us in many struggles; we have had to fight through multitudes of difficulties; we have had temptations from without and within—how could we have held on until now if he had not been with us? He is for us, let me say, with all the infinity of his heart, with all the omnipotence of his love; for us with all his boundless wisdom; arrayed in all the attributes which make him God he is for us—eternally and immutably for us; for us when the blue skies shall be rolled up like a worn out vesture; for us throughout eternity. Here, child of God, is matter enough for thought, even though you had ages to meditate upon it: God is for you; and if God be for you, who can be against you?”   Charles H. Spurgeon

“Nowhere does the Bible teach that Christians are exempt from tribulation and natural disaster…But the Bible does teach that we can face trials with a power others do not have – the power of God.  As we trust Him, God helps us endure, and even discern His purposes in the midst of suffering…The eagle has the unique ability to lock its joints and soar effortlessly on an updraft, instead of flapping its wings.  As we wait on God, He helps us use the winds of adversity to soar above our problems.  As the Bible says, ‘Those who wait on the Lord…shall mount up with wings like eagles’ (Isaiah 40:31).”   Billy Graham

“(Why does God) bother to speak to us?  The truly staggering answer that the Bible gives to this question is that God’s purpose in revelation is to make friends with us.  It was to this end that he created us rational beings, bearing his image, able to think and hear and speak and love; he wanted there to be genuine personal affection and friendship, two-sided, between himself and us—a relation, not like that between a man and his dog, but like that of a father to his child, or a husband to his wife.  Loving friendship between two persons has no ulterior motive; it is an end in itself. And this is God’s end in revelation. He speaks to us simply to fulfill the purpose for which we were made; that is, to bring into being a relationship in which he is a friend to us, and we to him, he finding his joy in giving us gifts and we finding ours in giving him thanks”.  J I Packer

“God is wonderful in all his doings, his ways are past finding out; at the end we can see best the wise and gracious steps he took with us:  therefore, when things take such a wonderful turn that we are quite at our wits’ end, and do not know which way to go, we may believe the hand of the Lord is in it, and some good will come of it at last.  As we experience the name of Christ to be wonderful at such times, we may well expect that he will show himself to be our Counsellor and mighty God also.  At first, everything may seem to be against us, and go quite contrary; but at last, we see plainly that it was highly needful that it should go contrary to our corrupt nature, and that thus it went well; for though the ways of God are marvelous, yet they are glorious.”   K. H. Von Bogatzky

“God desires and is pleased to communicate with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills, and our emotions.”   A. W. Tozer

“If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear.  His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer, His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable.”  John Newton

“He who stands today representing the interests of His people is very God of very God, to whom every knee shall bow.  Happy are we who belong to such a Shepherd, whose humanity communes with us, and whose divinity protects us.  Let us worship and bow down before Him as the people of His pasture.”    Charles H. Spurgeon

HEART SAVOR

• ·       At all times and in all ways, God is my ever present help.
• ·       The kingdom is safe in the King’s hands.
• ·       God will never leave me nor forsake me.  I am His child and I rest secure in Him.