This is one of my favorite hymns. I think the reason why I like it so much is that we struggle day in and day out with this concept. I heard a devotion this week based on Daniel chapter 6. This talks about our real struggle here on earth. Daniel believed in the one true God. We all face our struggles here on earth yet God is in us, and with us. Our sinful self wants to cling to the ways of the world, but our redeemed self wants to cling to the righteousness of Christ.

What are you struggling with in your life today? We see in both the Old and New Testaments of how the Spirit of God works in each of us. We also see how temptation can lead us in the wrong direction. In Hymn 685 in the Lutheran Service Book we have the hymn “What I was Ever Walk With Jesus”. We sing phrases like this: follow is example pure, through a world that would deceive us, onward in his footsteps treading, left us through the Father’s bidding, and I shall follow where you guide.

Without the one true God there is no way we could do this on our own. Our sinful nature would overpower us, but God has leveled the playing field. It is in the cross of Jesus Christ that we have been made his dear children. This death crushed the power of sin, death, and the world as we know from Genesis 3:15. We can’t walk with God as Daniel did, like all the saints we read about in Scripture. We even pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “but deliver us from evil.” God has given us the His Spirit in the waters of baptism as we walk through our life. When we look at it, the one true God has done it all.

We can follow Jesus and walk with him daily because He has made this possible. Just like with Daniel, we can be true and faithful to the one true God, because he has made this possible. We give thanks and praise to him, not only on Sunday, but without ceasing every day. We thank God that he has send His only begotten Son into the world to take our place as he died on the cross for all of our sins. We also give thanks to God for giving us His Spirit in and through the waters of Holy Baptism. Thanks be to the one true God.

Put all of your struggles, your problems, your sins into the hands of God. For He will forgive you, He will lead you, He will be your fortress against all evil. It is a good thing that it is not up to us, for without God nothing is possible. Read through the Bible and see how God has made His people faithful and redeemed them from every evil.

In the last verse of hymn 655 we sing the following. “What us also live with Jesus. He has risen from the dead.” So go out and live your life in the one true God for he has promised to you that you too will live with him forever.