There is ALWAYS God

Psalm 23: 1-6  “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

 One of the common threads in the Bible is that God is ALWAYS there for us. He never leaves us! Those who truly believe that God never leaves us has a comfort that cannot be known to others.

In the world and time we live in, that could be the MOST IMPORTANT thing we ever know! Everything is unsure around us. Life is so very fragile. There HAS to be something deep within us that we are holding on to and that something is GOD. God built us that way. He provides a place in each human that needs to be filled by the Holy Spirit. God desires to dwell within us.

At any given time something is going to go wrong in our lives and if we are not prepared we fall apart! God desires that we are prepared for that!

Here are some things that go wrong in our lives:

©      Family issues ~ People make decisions every day that are not based on the Lord and this almost always causes family issues. Problems between people will cause bitterness and division and before we know it we are wondering where God went; when all the while He has not left – it is  our own heart that turned away from Him. The beautiful thing about God is that when He is guiding our life; we have a harmony in our soul that changes us! Psalm 23:1

©      Decision issues ~ So often we make decisions that are not based on the Lord or His guidance and usually it causes strife and hardship in families; in the work place; on the ball field, etc. Decisions should be guided by wisdom that God gives the Believer! When wisdom is present there is often peace in the decision. God has a way of leading us where we need to be and is always there doing that when we are allowing it in our soul! It is when we turn away from the Lord and make decisions that often causes chaos. Psalm 23:2-3

©      Fear of the unknown issues ~ People would rather stay in the rut they are in; living in sin – instead of following God into the unknown! God never leaves us and if we are not willing to let go of the bad even when we don’t know where we are going – then we miss the blessing of life God has for us. Believers should follow the Lord by obedience and love. Somehow in the culture we live in; there is a need to be in control and this is in conflict with living in God instead of fear. Humanity controls fear. We have the ability to turn fear on and off. This often causes us confusion in life. Fear is a tool of satan to make us refuse to believe God’s Promise that He is ALWAYS there for us! We live with fear of death, fear of losing, fear of no money, fear of no friends, fear of not being good enough, fear of insecurity and every promise in the Bible is the exact opposite of fear! There will come a time in our lives when we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death and we MUST KNOW AHEAD OF TIME where we are in God! God’s instruction and help are ALWAYS with us! Psalm 23:4

©      Identity Issues ~ Who am I? If you are a believer in the Lord and follow after Him; you plainly know who you are in Christ! For those who do not know that they KNOW who they are; there is a conflict in the soul as to who they are. Satan WANTS us to be confused about who we are! It is a way that he keeps us from KNOWING God! The opposite is true about the believer! We know who we are in Christ and with God we are prepared to meet any enemy there is with the STRENGTH and POWER of the Lord! Psalm 23:5

©      Core belief Issues ~ There are those that are only surface believers and when adversity in this life comes; there is no promise in our hearts with God and failure is sure to happen. God desires that every man believe Him and stand on the Promises that Christ died for! When the worst thing in the world is happening to us -  as a Christian we should be able to say without a doubt that ‘goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life’ and BECAUSE of that ‘I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever’. When God is not at our core in our soul; this cannot be said of us. Psalm 23:6

The key to knowing God’s comfort is practicing God’s Presence! In order to live out Psalm 23; we must be active in our Faith and following close after God for everything in our lives!

Following God is three layers deep in humanity. ALL of us means these three parts working together to follow after God’s Promise.

©      Physically – When we are believing the Lord ‘physically’ in our lives; the ‘temple’ that we live in naturally gravitates to places where others are that love the Lord! Our ‘physical’ state is better off because we are not continually abusing the physical body with the world’s offerings of sin.

©      Emotionally – The ‘roller coaster’ of life is not ruling the person who is ‘emotionally stable’ in the Lord. This part of us demands to be filled with something. If we are following God our emotions will be fed by the Word of God and work in conjunction with our ‘physical state’ to be more stable; not always up and down.

©      Spiritually – Our soul longs for the things of God and when we are filling our ‘physical’ and ‘emotional’ with God; then our soul, where the Holy Spirit dwells, is full of God! “All things work together for good to those who love God”…This is what the Bible says…ALL of us has to work together in order to be where we need to be for the Lord and this happens when we are believing the Promises of the Lord.

THERE IS ALWAYS GOD! He does not leave us. I hope we can see from this lesson that God is not in the business of leaving us. We must be turned toward Him to see Him and BELIEVE Him!

The Word of God is filled with the Promises of God to us! They are there for encouragement and hope in this world! Take advantage of those promises today and do some rearranging in order that we might know that God is ALWAYS with us!