I Will Be With You

Jesus Christ is with you in every pang that rips your heart and in every pain that tears your body. Do you feel the sorrows of poverty? Jesus said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." (Matt. 8:20). Are you sorrowing? "Jesus wept" at Lazarus' tomb (John 11:35). Have you been slandered and hurt? He said, "Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness" (Psalm 69:20). Have you been betrayed? Remember, He had a friend who sold him for the price of a slave (Matt. 26:15).

Every stormy sea that has tossed you has roared around His boat too. There is no adversity so dark, so deep, or so apparently pathless that you cannot discover the Crucified One's footsteps when you kneel. In the fires, in the rivers, in the cold night, and under the burning sun He cries:

Fear not I am with you, O be not dismayed,

For I am your God and will still give you aid:

I'll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call you to go,

The rivers of sorrow will not overflow,

For I will be with you, your trials to bless,

And sanctify to you your deepest distress.

When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,

My grace all-sufficient shall be your supply

The flames shall not hurt you, I only design

Your dross to consume and your gold to refine.

~ Beside Still Waters, Charles H. Spurgeon, p. 139