Is God really with us?

Pastor Mark Jeske

You can be forgiven if you think that in reading devotional literature like these Grace Moments sometimes they seem to overdo the happy talk. We want life to be like a TV show—all problems are quickly wrapped up in 60 minutes (or less if you subtract the time consumed in commercials). Life, alas, is not always like that. Sometimes we wait a long time for relief.

The Midianites, a nomadic nation to Israel’s south, ravaged Israel’s towns for seven years. Their raiding parties burned up the Israelites’ crops, stole and slaughtered their livestock, and caused terrible poverty. “The angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.’ ‘Pardon me, my lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, “Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?” But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian’” (Judges 6:12,13).

What Gideon could not see was that God was completely on top of the situation for all seven of those terrible years. He was doing important spiritual things for the Israelites the whole time. What Gideon also did not know was that God had designed an extraordinary rescue plan that he would reveal at just the right time.

When you yourself cry out, “Is God really with us?” know with absolute certainty that the answer is yes.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org