Pondering the Prepositions: Before and Behind

by David Chadwick

Jesus Christ, the hope of glory, is IN you. He is also WITH you. While God is a very present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1), he is also omnipresent, meaning his very nature and character is everywhere. He is eternal and exists outside of time. Because of this, he goes before us and behind us.

Our next prepositions to ponder are "before" and "behind."

Jesus Christ goes before you every single day. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."

He fights our battles for us (Exodus 14:14). This means that before we ever arrive on the scene of a battle, God has already confronted our enemies and has defeated them.

The God of all creation knows our tomorrows, the weeks ahead, the years to come, and the time he will call us home. This is the blessed assurance about which the old hymn speaks and it should prompt us to praise our Savior forevermore!

God is also behind us.  He knows the enemy, the devil, loves to catch us off guard. To attack when we aren't looking. To blindside us when we aren't expecting it. But God is behind us. God is our blindside!  He protects us from the things we can't see. Lions always attack the stragglers in the herd of the wildebeests.

The assurance of our salvation and of God's omnipresence should prompt us to fully yield and fully surrender to his plan!

When you pray, pray with confidence. Pray with assurance. Pray with conviction. You are partnering with heaven to see God's kingdom come to earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

God has already gone before you. He has cleared the path and made a way where there was no way. He is always working even when we cannot see it. He is behind you, overseeing you against all the enemy's wiles to attack when you least expect it.

The God of the universe is also a deeply personal God. He is both all powerful and all personal!