God is With Us...even when kids get spanked.

About 4 years ago on a Wednesday night my two boys ended up getting in trouble as we left church.  I put them in the car and scolded them as we left and told them when we arrived home they would each receive a spanking for misbehaving at church.  Once we arrived home, Dru promptly received his spanking and went to get ready for bed.  Cooper came into our bedroom, I explained to him again why he was receiving a spanking and then told him to bend over and touch his toes.  Once he bent over, he turned his head around and looked at me and very sadly said through a cracking voice, “God is with me.”  I have never had a more difficult time disciplining one of my sons than this time.  Cooper had learned this truth that night in Mission Friends (and I guess he thought that it was as good a time as any to put it to use).  Unfortunately for Cooper I still had to spank him, even though he had uttered this profoundly important theological truth.  

In Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23 we are told that the Savior of the world would be the Son born to a virgin and they would call Him Immanuel.  As we know the Bible tells us that Immanuel, referring to Jesus, means “God with us”.  These Scriptures are referring to the time when Jesus was physically present with man while here on earth.  As we also know from the Scriptures once Jesus ascended into heaven, we received another part of the Trinity to be our Helper and Counselor, to be “God with us” in the absence of the physical body of Christ.  As believers we take God with us in everything that we do.  This is a rather sobering thought when we really concentrate on it.  But we can see the benefit for us as believers for God to be constantly with us.

Our constant companion.

In Deuteronomy 31:6 we are told “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”  This is a great thing about our relationship with God.  We have a constant companion who we can turn to at anytime and in any circumstance and regardless of how faithful we’ve been to Him.  There is something comforting about having someone there who is more capable and more knowledgeable than us to help lead us through the difficult times that we may face.  He loves us so much that not only does He not leave us but He as the psalmist says in Psalm 121:3 “He who watches over you will not slumber”.  Our God is constantly with us and constantly aware of all that is happening in our lives and He is actively involved in helping us in our daily lives.

On the flip side of that coin is the fact that God is also present with us when we are unfaithful to Him and falling into sin.  As a father there have been times when my sons have disappointed me or let me down because they did something that I had tried to warn them would not be good for them, may harm them, or may get them into trouble.  Our Father is the same way in that there are plenty of times we have disappointed Him or let Him down because we did something that He had tried to warn us would not be good for us, may harm us, or may get us into trouble.  With God being our constant companion we should be ever more mindful of those temptations that will draw us away from Him and try to hinder our relationship with Him.

As always we can be reminded that God is with us and be thankful for our Constant Companion and the benefits that we receive from His constant attention.

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