God Is With You Every Step You Take

During Old Testament times, our Heavenly Father made a promise to His people to give them a lush and bountiful land, so much so that it was referred to the land of ‘milk and honey’. In Joshua 1:9(The Message), He told them, “From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours. All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul. Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed. Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.”

God is as faithful to us as He was to His people living during Old Testament times. Hebrews 10:23(NLT) says, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.” Our Heavenly Father always keeps His promises but even after we’ve been on this Christian journey for numerous years, many of us still struggle to believe this.

A friend of mine has been a Christian for almost as long as I have. She’s been struggling in a relationship with a man that is verbally abusive and often calls her horrible names. When I tell her that she is stronger than she thinks and encourage her that God will back her every step to live free of abuse, she immediately dismisses my encouragement. Her response is always, “What works for you, won’t work for me! If I have to suffer then that’s what God wants me to do.”

Many believers have this attitude, that God wants them to suffer. Jesus Christ said in John 10:10(NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” In this verse, our powerful Lord and Savior tells us why the devil is in the earth, and it is to steal, kill, and destroy. This is what the enemy does, but Jesus Christ came to give us victory. He came to make a more than abundant life available to all that will believe and accept it.

In John 3:16-17(NLT), Jesus also tells us, “16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” God loves us so much that He sent His precious Son to save us. He doesn’t want us to suffer, He wants us to live a blessed existence with good health, great relationships, fulfilling work, spiritual power, and most importantly, fellowship with Him.

This is the life God made available through Christ, but we have an enemy, the devil, and God warns us about this in 1Peter 5:8. In the verse, God tells us to stay alert about the devil’s schemes, tricks, and plots against us because he roams the earth, on the hunt for an opening into a person’s life. If he finds one, he will attempt to attack us in the most deceitful and merciless way. The way that we outsmart the devil is to open our eyes by learning and knowing God’s truth.

We can be tricked into believing the wrong things about God and what He will do for us, but we must refuse to continue to allow the enemy to blind us. Our Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to suffer. He wants us lean on Him with every step we take, because He will be with us! He is our Source of strength and all good things. God doesn’t want us to be shy or discouraged about pursuing the blessed life He’s given us, and we must be resolves that no relationship with another human being is worth the cost of our peace. Our Heavenly Father wants us to learn the truth about Him and His love through His Word so that we can live confidently in the victory He has won for us through Christ! ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Overcoming Domestic Violence

Overcoming domestic violence and abuse through Jesus Christ!