"I am with you always"

Good Morning,

Joshua 1:5 (NIV)
No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Two verses today which remind us...and assure us...that God is with us always and that He will never leave us nor will He every forsake us. As many of you know, I don't often send along things that I get in my e-mail. Today, however, I received a wonderful story (author unknown, I'm afraid) which is an excellent analogy of these verses. So, here it is...

Cherokee Tradition – Author Unknown
Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified... He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. If you liked this story, pass it on. If not, you took off your blindfold before dawn.
Moral of the story:
Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there.

Yes, there are times that we feel abandoned by God and times when even if we don't feel totally abandoned, we DO feel so very alone. Maybe this little story can help us to remember that no matter how we might FEEL at any particular point in time, God is still there; He's still with us; He will never abandon us or leave us or forsake us.

He said so. I believe it.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David