God Is With Us

God is with us! Personalize that idea a bit and say it out loud, “God is with me!”  I don’t know about you, but I assume you are about as human as I am. Any stress in your life? These last several months, and particularly the days leading up to Christmas, have been some of the most stressful I’ve experienced in a long time.

Besides the self-imposed pressure of getting my book launched in early spring, I have recently undergone oral surgery to remove a broken tooth, my computer is dying, and I’m in the process of breaking in a new one, and just a few days ago Cecelia stepped to my office door and said, “I hate to tell you this, but I think the washing machine just died.” Have you tried to replace an appliance recently? She was correct, it was dead and it is going to be early January before we can get the new one. Dirty clothes are piling up.

In my better moments, I’ve been able to remember this astounding, reassuring word that God is with us. He is with me and you in all the messy, stressful stuff that happens every day in our lives. God knows about the washer and every small detail of what we are dealing with.

 Furthermore, he cares and wants us to rest in him while we work our way through each challenge. I know God could have prevented all the issues I’ve listed from happening but he chose not to for a good reason.

Troubles are a part of life and I need to recognize I cannot maintain a good approach to living unless I allow him to enter the problems with me. God is with me but I must acknowledge my limitations and ask God to give me wisdom and grace to cooperate with him in what he wants to accomplish in my character with the problem. My default tendency is to try to deal with problems on my own before calling on God, but life is teaching me that isn’t very smart, especially when God is with me.

We’re approaching the New Year in a few days. Throngs will likely gather in major cities around the world to welcome 2022. There will be parties and celebrations well into the first day of the year. Why do we do this? Is there something magical about passing from December 31 to January 1?

 I remember days from my childhood when churches would have worship services to pray for God’s favor in the New Year. People would worship ‘til midnight and go home and go to bed. We don’t do this kind of thing much anymore; that is to turn to the only hope we have to face the tragedies and difficulties life brings our way. We don’t need magic, we need God. He has known this that all along and came personally to be born in a smelly stable over two thousand years ago. He did something that can transform our fears to hope, our difficulties into victory. God is with us! Hang on to that hope because you will need it sooner or later. Remember, God is with us. God is with you!

Will you pray for me and the folks who are working with me to get the book  Heaven’s Currency into the hands of people who need what it has to say?  The next couple of months are crucial in this effort and this mountain is too big for me to climb without the strength and blessing that only God can provide. I have worked for three years in order to come to this point and the success of this book will depend on God opening doors of opportunity and creating a hunger in the hearts of thousands for the message we need to hear and obey. I strongly believe this is a book for our time. Please join me in this effort to get this word out, will you?  I’m not asking for or want financial support, the Lord has already supplied that. Will you sincerely pray for this project?

Please let me if you will be praying often for me. And, let me know how I can pray for you and I will be glad to add you to my prayer list. Thanks, Cos