MaryEllen Montville

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” –Psalm 56:8

“While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes, there is a God who has not surrendered authority.” –A. W. Towzer

Beloved of Jesus, despite the dark fractalness, the ever-increasing unruliness erupting around the world, though you’re bombarded daily by visual reminders of man’s bottom-of-the-barrel depravity, of the most monstrous, pure evil that, once seen, can never be unseen showing up on your television screens, or shamelessly spreading itself out across your news feeds, causing you perhaps, on your lowest of days, to feel as though Jesus has forgotten us; He has not!

The Lord has sent me today to remind you, His battle-weary Bride, that, despite however it may feel, Jesus is not far off; He is near. I’ve been sent to remind you, Jesus will never forget His promises to you: “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” –Deuteronomy 31:8.

You serve, or can serve, the One True God who is sternally near to His people, Immanuel, God with us.

This Jesus, who, having stepped out of time, wrapped Himself in human flesh to be born of a virgin, that He might know your pain, needs, joys, and sorrows, intimately, experientially, as a man alone knows, ginóskō, his wife. “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin.” –Hebrews 4:15.

 In Greek, Ginóskō is defined as the bond between close friends, God and his followers, or the sexual union between a husband and wife.

God gave Moses a promise to encourage and strengthen His people, Israel, and His same promise to Israel, and through them, to you, remains as fresh, sure, and steadfast today as it did the moment it left His mouth. What is this promise? “The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” –Deuteronomy 31:8

How can you know that what I’m telling you is true?

Simple. I didn’t say it. Jesus did. “Sky and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” –Matthew 24:35. The promise given to Moses to speak over God’s people, Israel, roughly 3.5 thousand years ago, carries the same weight today; God’s constant Presence and unfailing love remain unchanging. How? “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good and fulfill it?” –Numbers 23:19.

The same Jesus who knows the very number of hairs on your head is the same Jesus who has caught every tear you’ve shed in His bottle. “But [even] the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be struck with fear or seized with alarm…” –Luke 12:7.

He’s also the same Jesus who still knows when a sparrow falls to the ground dead. “Are not two little sparrows sold for a copper coin? And yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.” –Matthew 10:29. Don’t miss the power of these closing, faith-testing, I trust You “even if” Words, beloved. “And yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.”  

On this sentence hinges not only your sure, faithful footing for today, but also the sure foundation of hope and faith you’ll need to navigate everything happening around you, in the lives of others, and in the world at large in the days to come. You must, must, white-knuckle cling to the knowledge that God is Sovereign, contrary to what you may see happen, think, or feel. Period. Sure that nothing ever has or will happen in God’s world without His knowledge, outside of His “But God” way of bringing good from our pain and even the evil intentions of the enemy of our souls.

Yes, beloved, Jesus will bring good even from the death and destruction you see and hear of happening around the world today, viloent acts that shake you to your core, atrocities that cause even the most stalwart of believers to pause and pray for the strength to keep pressing forward despite what they’ve just witnessed, seen or read about. Choosing not to pretend it isn’t happening, but choosing instead to fix their eyes on Jesus and scream out if they must, “Jesus, I don’t understand any of this, but I trust you!”,

God has not forgotten you, beloved.

Jesus sees everything that’s happening to you and around you. And despite your inability to see it right now, He is making ALL things work together for your good.

Long before you were born, twelve men, much like yourself, willingly laid down their lives because they chose to hold fast, bulldog-like, to this one Truth. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.” –1 John 1 1-4.

Their relationships with Jesus were so solid, so unshakable, that, even when they faced horrific, torturous forms of death, they did not deny Him. According to His Word, at the very hour of their earthly death, Jesus was somehow with them, steadying them, preparing them some way, to close their eyes to this world, only to open them again to the world He’d promised them would come. “For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death”. –Psalm 48:14.

If Jesus promises to guide us even unto death, and He does, how can you doubt that He’s not with you now?

Yes, it’s dark and getting darker, beloved, but remember, Jesus told you this would happen. So don’t panic, and don’t let fear or today’s headlines send you running to anyone other than Jesus.

Jesus is with you—and He’ll never leave you.

In closing, the Apostle Peter knew, like himself, you would have moments of doubt and questioning when fiery trials tested your faith. And so, to encourage you to hold fast to your faith and continue pressing on regardless, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He wrote these Words to you, me, and all those who read them and will believe in Jesus, just how real and present He truly is—still.

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?” So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.” –1 Peter 4:12-19. Emphasis mine.

Amen.