So be strong in the Lord and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.   {Deuteronomy 31:6}

My mother once asked me why I read the old testament. I told her that we learn so much about God's nature through His relationship with Israel. On Sunday mornings we have been studying with Nancy Guthrie, about Jesus in the old testament. The Messiah, the Promised One, The Son of David are only a few names we see in those early writings, not to mention in Isaiah 7:14 where the Lord is called Immanuel, which is "God with us."

I know many of us could give testimony to the faithfulness of God with us. Beth Moore calls Jesus, the 'With of God. I remember this because it had a profound effect on me. He's the part of God that actually walked this earth, so that He would know what it was like for us. Not that God can be broken apart, not at all! The Holy Spirit lives within us, but Jesus' experience as a human, displayed the deepest form of love that will ever be. The Holy Spirit testifies that God's love is forever closer than we can imagine, but without the cross,  we wouldn't even know that God's Spirit was there.

Not only can we safely trust Our Lord to be "with us" today, He promises to be with us for all eternity. I love the song by Casting Crowns called "Already There." "When I look back on this life I'll see how all the pieces fit, because He's already there!" He's there in the future, in the past, and everywhere else we need Him. What an awesome God!