Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Promise: I am with you always!

Matthew 28v20 “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

My deepest need is the presence of God. I need him to befriend me, to clean me, to fill me, to empower me. Jesus’ last words in Matthew’s gospel are a promise to us, “And surely I am with you always”.

This is not a promise for some distant time, but a promise for now as Jesus says, “I am …”. We may not always feel Him there, but our feelings do not always reflect the reality. We live on the basis of the facts, and the fact is that Jesus has said, “I am with you”. Jesus is totally honest and trust-worthy, he is also all powerful and cannot be stopped from doing what he says he will do. We can therefore hold this truth as a given in our daily lives: “I am with you”.

However, there is something to highlight and that is the context. Jesus gives this promise in the context of saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them … and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you …” . So He is promising his presence as we step out, live out and speak out what he says. The best way to teach others to obey is by example: it is caught. Jesus is saying that we do not need to fear any consequences of doing so, because he is with us. This is poignant for people in Iran as just this morning I read about people imprisoned for being part of a house church. But it is also poignant for us in different ways. Each of us is in different situations, some of us have many opportunities to “make disciples” and others have few. Some are hampered by ill health, others have much energy. But as each of us allow his light to shine out from us in this dark world, He is with us. If this were not true, we would stand no chance.

Remind yourself of Jesus’s promise today and give him thanks for being with you.

With love and blessing,

Roland