How Can I Know If God Is With Me?

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

St. Augustine of Hippo

We all want to be united to God. 

Just look at the data! Year after year, YouVersion reports that Isaiah 41:10 is the verse “people highlighted, bookmarked, and shared the most.” It reads:

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.This question - how can we be with God? - is a primary theme of the Biblical storyline.

Genesis starts with God’s people in God’s presence.

Revelation ends with God’s people in God’s presence.

In between, every story shows the tension of God’s people wondering how they can connect to God. 

Some attempt to appease God with sacrifices; others, with good deeds.

Some respond to God’s absence with foolishness, attempting to find fulfillment without him. 

The Biblical stories help us understand our own stories. 

Don’t you want to be with God?

Our yearning for God is why millions keep returning to Isaiah 41:10. We want the assurance that God is with us. 

Yet, how can we be sure that God is with us? 

After all, Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

And we’re all too familiar with people who loved to talk about the Bible but lived like God didn’t exist. Their scandals - and sometimes, their crimes - show us the gap between religious performances and God’s transformation of our lives. 

The Bible is clear that we are saved by what God has done for us - not what we do for God.

Any attempt to save ourselves through sound doctrine or good deeds won’t work: we’d never make it. 

But Jesus’ death on the cross reconciles us with God. 

As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:13-18,

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.

In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.

He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death.

He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away [Gentiles] and peace to those who were near [Jews].

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

As Dr. Lynn Cohick explains,

Paul describes redemption in Christ by declaring that Christ is our peace. This peace creates something new, a single entity reconciled to God, and this peace kills something old, the enmity that existed between humans, all made in God’s image. The one, new humanity reflects the one Spirit and the Father, together with the one Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of Jesus, God’s people are united into a new humanity — the church — that is forever with our Triune God. 

So how do we have assurance that God is with us - and that we are with God? 

We must have a clear answer to this question. It protects us from being taken advantage of by religious frauds. They want to leverage our desire to know God so that we will give them our money, time, and attention. 

But Paul makes it clear: we are united to God because Jesus has reconciled us to God through his crucifixion.

It is through Jesus, by Jesus, and in Jesus that we are united to every other believer and God.

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Can you share a personal experience or insight that has assured you of God's presence in your life?