He Lives With Me
My summer task-force responsibilities were over. My wife and I had worked for 10 weeks in Denver during the summer of 1974. Now we needed short-term jobs for the rest of the summer to earn some money to get back to the seminary. Jobs were scarce. People were being laid off from the construction jobs I had counted on. I tried several firms without success. I checked out other options, like being a lifeguard. The answer was the same: “Sorry!”
I explored every job option possible. Finally I said to my wife, “God knows our needs, so I guess He will have to work something out. I don’t know what else to check.”
My theology describes a personal God who enjoys being involved in our daily lives. Jesus says that when we love and obey Him, He will come and make His home with us. Does God actually live in my house?
By the end of that miserable job-hunting week, my wife and I both had jobs. And not only that, but the jobs lasted only as long as we needed before returning to the seminary. And they provided just the amount of money we needed to travel back East. Coincidence—or relationship?
The real issue I must decide is simply whether God is real. Is He “a very present help in trouble?” Does He listen? Does He act in our behalf? Does everything I have belong to Him? Does He live with me? When I answer yes to each of these, I’m already on the exciting journey of true stewardship in a life with Him. Does He always give me everything I want? No! Sometimes it seems to me that His timing is terrible. Perfectly terrible. “Perfectly” because He always comes through, on His schedule, not mine. Regardless of what happens, I know He is living right there with me through everything that happens.
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23, NIV).
By James Brauer
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