Our Divine Companion

Our Divine Companion

Some time ago there appeared in a magazine an account of a tour which the King and Queen of England made of London. Without even a body guard he and the queen went out among their people, examining buildings, commanding workers, cheering the distressed and talking pleasantry with all. The king loves his people and they love and honor him. As he was out examining the damage done to one of the bombed buildings a woman who was scrubbing the littered floor up and saw him standing there and exclaimed, “Well, if it’s not the king himself and me so untidy.” At one point in the tour when the air raid siren sounded the king and queen went into the shelter with the rest of the people. At first the king was unrecognized, and then they leaped to their feet and cheered lustily as they recognized their king and queen. He stayed and talked with them and drank tea with them, even after the all clear signal had sounded. No wonder the English love their king, not only for his majesty but also for his gentle consideration of them and interest in them.

We Christians have a King, Jesus Christ Our Savior and Lord. So great is His majesty that it is beyond our human comprehension. So wonderful is His love for us and interest in us that He laid aside His heavenly glory and came from His heavenly place to walk as a man upon the earth and many beheld His glory “as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” Christ, our King, still walks upon the earth among His people talking with them, praising them for their goodness, comforting them in their hour of sadness, commending them for their loyalty.

The scriptures contain many precious promises, some are made to the King’s disciples, and others are made to those who are not followers of the King. To my mind one of the most precious that the King has made to His disciples is this, “Lo, I am with you always.” These words do not tell us that He will be with us on the future, nor do they promise us that He has been with us in the past, but they assure us that He is with us now. He is with us no matter what the complexion of the day, whether it be summer or winter, whether it be a day of gladness or sadness, sunshine or storm, failure or prosperity, He is with us in all of them. Jesus is our Divine Companion not only on Sundays but also throughout the entire week.

Jesus is with us when storm clouds gather. One night the disciples went out in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee while Jesus went up into a mountain top to pray. As so often happens on that inland sea, a sudden and terrific storm came up. The disciple’s rowed with all their might, but even after nine hours of toil, they had not reached the other shore. At length as the dawn was approaching, they beheld one moving majestically toward them, “walking on the sea.” They, with the superstition of the times strong within their hearts thought it was a ghost. These one’s failed to recognize the One who had been their constant companion for so long. But immediately the mysterious One who up until this moment seemed as if He was going to pass them by, and who was indeed the Lord himself, spoke to them and said, “Be of good cheer it is I.” All the time they were on the sea Jesus had been with them, for Mark tells us that “He was on the mountain top praying,” and from that we infer from this vantage point He had been watching His disciples.

As we sail the sea of life, the sea which has been made turbulent by the winds of adversity, Jesus our King is with us. Jesus didn’t revel himself to the disciples as soon and the storm broke. The storm has a purpose in the life of the Lord’s followers; it’s the storms that cause the trees to put out roots to brace it. It is the storms that test the strength of the building. It is the storm that clears the atmosphere. In this particular case it was the storm that took the disciples away from the land of temptation. Storms have a place in the life of the Christian and the comforting thought is that throughout the entire storm Jesus is with you. When that storm has accomplished the divine purpose then our Divine Companion will reveal himself and say, “Be of good cheer, it is I. I have come to bring you deliverance.” When He comes do not fail to recognize Him. Be ready to recognize the hand of the Master in the stilling of the storm.

Jesus is not only with us on the tempest tossed sea, but also He is with us when we are on the mountain top. To my mind the mountain top experience and His disciples are symbolical of those times when we come into closest fellowship with Jesus, “Jesus went up into a mountain and when He was set His disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them saying.” When you sit on the mountain top with God’s Holy Word open before you, you are conscious that Jesus is speaking to you from the pages of the Book Divine, revealing unto you the will of the Father, comforting you with words of love, inspiring you to higher heights in our Christian living. As you climb the mountain top and enter the house of worship are you conscious that in a very peculiar way Jesus your Savior and Master it present? “Where two or three are gathered in my name there will I be in the midst of them.” Do you hear Jesus speaking to you through the words of the hymns, the prayers, the scriptures and the sermon? You who would experience the preciousness of the promise, “Lo, I am with you always,” sit often on the mountain top and allow Jesus to “open His mouth and teach you saying.”

So often we read in God’s Word that Jesus drew aside into the mountain to pray. When Jesus prayed He was definitely conscious of the closeness of His Father in heaven. As you pray are you conscious of the nearness of Jesus? Our prayers are not offered to the mountains, to the winds, not to the four corners of the earth. Our prayers are spoken to a Living Person who is nearer to us than the very air we breathe. At anytime we can ascend the mountain top of prayer. I learned this lesson as a lad in my early teens. I used to caddy at the local golf course. At the time I didn’t wear glasses and my eyesight was not the best. Thus I found it difficult to watch that white speck of a ball as it winged its way through the air. Because of this I found little joy in being a caddy. One Saturday afternoon I was caddying for a particularly gruff individual and I was terror stricken for fear I would lose a ball. So before beginning the round I spoke to Jesus and asked Him to help me. To my great surprise that prayer was answered, and that afternoon I found it completely easy to follow the ball as it winged in flight through the air. That afternoon I learned a lesson that I have never forgotten, I didn’t have to retrieve to the quite of my room to speak to Jesus. I learned that He is ever near to hear and answer prayer. As you are busy about your household duties, as you are walking behind the plow, as you are busy in the office, or in the classroom, you can climb the mountain of prayer and experience the nearness and closeness of Jesus.

On the mountain top the disciples had there most enjoyable times in the presence of Christ. Jesus is with us in the hour of joy as well as in the hour of sadness. He is with us on the mountain top of peace as well as on the sea of tempest. In the hour of gladness we can reach out and place our hand in the hand of the Savior. We so often think that the Savior is with us only in the hour of grief, He is also near in the hour of joy. Let us remember that He is with us at the baseball game, on the gold course, in the parlor as we enjoy the visit of our neighbor.

Jesus is with us, likewise, as we walk life’s dusty highway. It was the evening of the resurrection day; two disciples were going from the city of Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. Perhaps they have walked this road many times before. This time they walked along and a stranger drew along side of them and walked with them. He sympathetically listened as they open their hearts to Him, and told all that perplexed them, how they had thought that it was “Jesus who should redeem Israel.” Then this Stranger broke to them the bread of life, and shows them how it was necessary for Jesus to suffer as He if he would go further but they invited him to come in and spend the night. As they sat about the supper table the Stranger broke bread and they recognized that it was Jesus. Beloved, as we walk the hot, dusty, monotonous road of daily living, a Stranger walks by our side. He is One unto whom we can open our hearts and rid them of doubts, fears and perplexities. As you go about your daily task, have you ever talked with Jesus? I mean actually talk to Him, as you talk to another friend. Have you ever told Him your doubts and fears, your hope and ambitions, your needs and desires? If you haven’t, you haven’t experienced the blessing of the promise, “Lo, I am with you always.” Try it sometime, you will find Him a very sympathetic listener, and you will hear Him speaking to you in accents clear and low, answering your doubts, calming your fears, encouraging you in your ambitions, and supplying your needs. In such a way the dusty, hard, monotonous road of daily living will become the road of joy, peace, and happiness.

Is Jesus a living reality to you? Are you conscious of His nearness to you when the storms clouds gather, in the hour of joy and peace, in the toil of daily living? Is Christ real to you or just a shadow out of the past? Is the Savior you profess to know and love a theory or a fact? It is one thing to know all there is to know about Christ but it is a far better thing to know Him. Can you sing with conviction?

I come to the garden alone,

While to due is still on the roses;

And the voice I hear falling on my ear;

The Son of God discloses,

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own.

And the joys we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

Notice that the promise, “Lo, I am with you always,” comes after the command to go, to teach, and to baptize. The blessing and power of this promise is contingent upon obedience to the command. If you wish to keep Christ near you, and to feel Him with you, the way to do it is no mere cultivation of religious emotion, or saturating your mind with religious books and thoughts, though these have there place; but on the dusty road of life to do His will and keep His commandments. “If a man loves me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick