He Is With Us!

I was thinking about our calling to make the truth of the Gospel known to this generation. I was reading about Ezekiel's and Jeremiah's call to prophetic ministry in particular.  Both men lived during very distressful times in Israel's history and God's calling upon them no doubt was an overwhelming sense of inadequacy and intimidation. 
Jeremiah lived when his nation was determined to do wrong, worship false deities and refuse the words and instruction from their God. It was so bad that Jeremiah was told by God not even to pray for them, God refused to hear. How dreadful that must have been to Jeremiah.  Ezekiel lived and served after the exile had taken place, or at least had begun, and spoke to his people as he and they were captive in a cruel and foreign land.  As we read through those books we can hear the hearts of the two men breaking because of the sins of their nation, and the resultant judgment they had to suffer. The nation was steeped in false religion, moral corruption, dishonesty, greed, oppression, injustices, slanders, not a very pleasant condition. 
 Yet, God calls these men to be separate.  He set them apart for the mission He had for them, and in spite of the animosity and resistance to their message, they obeyed God and spoke His word to a generation who really did not want to hear it.  The source of their courage? God promised to be with them.
The call to make God's word known was binding upon these men, but it is just as binding on us today. All believers are called to God, and sent to man. Our culture is in pretty bad shape today. We are steeped in the same types of sin the two prophets had to face, perhaps more, but like God promised them, so He promises us--He will be with us.
Jesus sends us out in the great commission, and likewise promises to be with us until the end of the age. We need not fear the intimidation of others, or the backlash of culture when we speak or stand for truth. God is with us.  He knows very well the condition of our society and the pressures of living as a follower of Jesus in such a context, but He is with us. His strength, boldness, love, consistency convictions are all at our disposal as we walk contrary to the winds blowing through our nation. And although we don't face the persecution that many Christians do worldwide, our hearts still grieve at the sin and peoples outright refusal to turn from it. We grieve because God is with us. Our grieving is tied to His grieving at the corruption of our nation and the world at large. 
The only option is to go forward, faithfully carrying out the will of God day by day, making His word known in our own small ways. His calling remains, it will not fail to carry us through in all obedience and victory.  His calling is with us because He is with us. Be faithful, be strong, be diligent, be assured. He is with us!