Our theme for this month: “Never forsaken, never abandoned.”
Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me.” John 14:1 (NLT)
Our thought for today: “You can trust the Lord”
As we end our month of devotions on the theme of “Never forsaken, never abandoned”, I want us to consider two key New Testament verses. The first is John 14:1 cited above. Jesus said those words to His disciples on the night before He was crucified. He was speaking to those who were closest to Him, the ones who had come to rely on His physical presence the most. For three and one half years they had lived with Him, eaten with Him, ministered with Him, and learned from Him. But tomorrow He would be gone, and Jesus knew they were going to be devastated. So He urged them to not allow their hearts to be troubled. During their time with Jesus they had learned from personal experience that they could indeed trust both Father God and Jesus the Son, and Jesus wanted them to remember that great truth in the days ahead.
The second verse is found in Matthew 28:20. It is forty days after the resurrection. Jesus died on the cross, arose from the grave, and appeared to the disciples numerous times in His resurrection body. So once again they had Jesus actually with them – albeit only for short periods of time, and in a physical/spiritual resurrection body. But now that too was about to come to an end. In just a moment Jesus would ascend back into heaven to take His place at the right hand of the Father. From that moment forward the disciples would no longer have a visible Jesus with them in any form. And so the last words He speaks to them are “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (NLT)
What the disciples would soon learn is the same lesson that you and I have had to learn, that Jesus is indeed with us – always. Now however, He is with us by means of the spiritual presence of His Holy Spirit in our hearts, and through the physical presence of other Christians.
It’s very true that Jesus has remained with us, and is always with us, but we have to learn to see and experience Him in the forms He uses to manifest that presence to us in this age in which we live. A well-developed life of practicing the basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith such as prayer, Bible study, worship, fasting, meditation, service, etc, help to place us in a position before God whereby the Holy Spirit truly can live and flourish in our lives. Then, lots of time spent with other mature Christians puts us in a position whereby Jesus can interact with us through them. (See John 15:5 to gain a better understanding of how that works).
It’s really true that He never forsakes us, and He never abandons us. Even in the worst of times He is there for us. Especially in the worst of times He is there for us.
God Bless,
Oak Hill Baptist Church 