If My God is For Me...

You have kept count of my tossings;

put my tears in your bottle.

Are they not in your book?

Then my enemies will turn back

in the day when I call.

This I know, that God is for me. Psalm 56:8-9

I have been studying the Old Testament book of Jeremiah for several months now. Overall, it's a pretty grim book as the nation of Israel continually forsakes the one, true, and living God to do whatever her heart desires despite God's warnings. Throughout the book they experience discipline, destruction, and devastation. Then there come a few chapters near the middle of the book (chapters 29-33) where God promises to restore His people back to Himself and give them a new heart that will never forsake Him again. These hope-filled promises point toward the New Testament, to the coming of Christ. These chapters are in stark contrast to the surrounding ones that contain warnings of doom. The former has the favor of God and the latter doesn't. One contains "plans for a hope and future" (29:11), while the other promises plans for "harm and not for good" (21:10). Because of this study and because of things going on in my life, I have been pondering lately what it means for God to be for me. As the Scripture says above, He is for me. He is for every single person who has put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ. But what does that mean? There are many unfavorable circumstances in my life that would indicate that Jesus is not for me. The enemy has been whispering in my ear that it makes no difference for God to be for me, to have Him on my side. Just look at my life. My dad has terminal cancer. My mom just had the umpteenth surgery on her foot. My car wouldn't start last Thursday and I have been without a vehicle since (though, thankfully, I got a call today from the mechanic saying it's fixed). Bad news seems to lurk around every corner, so how is God for me? The evidence seems to point otherwise.

But the evidence doesn't always tell the whole truth. Yes, these things are happening and, yes, they are less than desirable, but there are unseen things transacting in the midst of these events that aren't so easy to discern (hence, unseen - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18). But God's Word reveals the unseen. This is where I learn how God is for me. This is where I go to learn how to think rightly about these things. This is where I go to reset my focus - away from my circumstances and toward my Savior (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Before I dive into how Scripture says God is for me, let's look first at what it means for God to be against me. In truth, we are all natural-born enemies of God. No one does good; no, not one. No one seeks after God. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of His glory. This is what Romans chapter three tells us. We are rebels. We are enemies of God and, therefore, He is against us. His wrath is upon us (John 3:36). We are separated from God and all of His goodness (Ephesians 2:12). In fact, God is working for our harm and not for our good (Jeremiah 21:10). Unless we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, this is our grim state. This is our indictment and it continues to be so for all eternity for those who don't trust in Jesus Christ. That is what hell is: it is an eternal state of separation from God and His goodness where you forever experience the full force of His wrath and fury.

Behold, I am against you, O proud one,

declares the Lord God of hosts,

for your day has come,

the time when I will punish you. Jeremiah 50:31

That used to be true of me, but it's not anymore. God saved me through His Son Jesus Christ twelve years ago. Because of Christ, God is no longer against me. I have been reconciled to Him. So here is a small listing of what it means for God to be for me:

• It means that I am no longer God's enemy. I am now His daughter. 1 John 3:1
• It means that God has done all that is required for me to know Him. He has given me the righteousness He requires and forgiven me through the death of His own Son. I am no longer guilty of my sin because Christ paid it for me and I no longer have to perfectly keep God's Law because Jesus kept it perfectly for me. Romans 4:1-12 (also see Pastor Andy's sermon, "A Call to Believe and Rest")
• It means that I am free from sin. I no longer have to sin; I now have a choice. I am now free to obey God. Romans 6; Galatians 5:1
• It means that God will provide all my needs according to His glories riches in Christ Jesus (which He more than proved to me while I've been without a vehicle). He will even give me my heart's desire (because He conforms it to His own). Philippians 4:19; Matthew 6:33; Psalm 37:4
• It means that He has a hope and a future for me; that I have a purpose; that He has planned good for me and not evil; that no matter what happens in my life, God is working in each circumstance for my ultimate good and His glory. The Lord is so powerful that He can take even the most horrible situation and bring good out of it. Think about the cross. Jesus Christ, the only perfect human to ever live, the one who obeyed God's holy law perfectly, the one who loved God and people completely and perfectly, the one who never sinned and only good was found in Him, this Perfect One was betrayed, spit upon, mocked, brutally whipped and beaten, and then nailed to a cross. That is not good in and of itself, but God ordained this to happen so that He could punish this Perfect One for the sins of His people, to satisfy His holy justice and anger, so that He could save a people for Himself. Now that is very good! He works everything for the good of those who love them and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28; Jeremiah 29:11

These are just some of the ways that God is for for me. I would like to say that I live perfectly in this truth, but I don't. I often forget who my God is and who I am in Him. I often lose sight of His promises and His goodness and choose to wallow in self-pity and bitterness as I see my life crumbling around me. But you know what? Even then God is for me. Even then He gently shows me my sin and calls me back to Him. Even then He never leaves me. That's grace. That's the God of the Bible. He is forever for His people. 

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31