Stand By Me
Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 4:17-18
But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
After the sad list of departures and abandonment, Paul proclaims that there was One who never left his side. The Lord stood by him and strengthened him. He doesn’t tell us exactly how he experienced the Lord’s presence, but we can make a good guess about the ways the Lord stands by His people in their hour of need.
We experience the Lord’s presence through His promises. When we trust in Him to keep His promises, we are strengthened.
In another place, Paul talked about the “peace that passes all understanding.” We can assume that even though Paul was in a distressing situation, he knew that kind of peace from the Lord.
Jesus told the disciples that when they were brought before magistrates and tried, they need not worry about what they would say. The Holy Spirit would give them the words to say when that time came. Paul, I’m confident, through all of his difficulties – his arrest, trials, and imprisonments – was given the words to say in each situation.
One of the things Paul needed most was courage. As he described it, he was in the lion’s mouth. That is a frightening place to be. He experienced the Lord’s presence as he was given supernatural courage while undergoing trials that could make the heart collapse under fear.
Finally, Paul experienced the Lord’s presence through the way his trials became new and exciting means of ministering the gospel. It was through his difficulties that God opened avenues to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles. There were doors opened that might not have been opened in any other way. Paul saw this as the hand of God’s Providence.
What was true for Paul, can be true for every child of God. Jesus promised to never leave or forsake us. How his presence is experienced varies from person to person and experience to experience. It might be in one of the ways I mentioned here or in some other way. But if we look for it, we will see and know that whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, we will able to say with Paul, “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.”
