Someone in My Corner

Have you ever felt like you just need someone in your corner? A friend who will stand up for you, support you, fight for you? One who no matter what, you can trust 100%. It's easy for us to feel this way sometimes. As we grow older, relationships change and seasons come and go. And especially for women, we can find those things hard to reconcile, and long for deep, true relationships of someone in our corner. Relationships here are good and necessary and can be means of such life-giving grace, but at some point, as humans, we will disappoint one another, let one another down. Nevertheless, we still long to know someone is there, and sometimes it may feel as if we have no one. When I find myself in that position, lamenting about wanting someone in my corner, I hear a subtle voice reminding me of the gospel truth that I need to hear over and over again–the Lord is always in my corner. He is always for you.

The Lord is for you. He is unashamedly, steadfastly, forever for you. In Christ, He has placed His love on and He will not let you go. In Romans 8, we read, "If God is for us, then who could ever be against us?" God is for us, not because of anything that we have done–not because we flattered Him, not because we said the right things to Him, and especially not because we have been faithful to Him–rather, God is for us because He has chosen to be out of His mercy, grace, and kindness toward us in Christ.

Sister, I want to encourage you with three ways the Lord is for you:

1. The Lord will stand up for you. Our greatest concern in this world should be our standing before God. Apart from Christ, we are sinful and are eternally separated from Him and His presence. But in Christ, He is our Advocate–He stands before the Father on our behalf, interceding for us. When you deserve hell and the righteous wrath of God due for the payment of your sins, Jesus stood up for you and he stands there, blood-stained, before the Father declaring righteousness over you. What more could we need? That should be a sobering thought for us when we often long for someone on this earth to stand up for us. How temporal! But we willing lay eternity on the altar of the temporary, so as to get what we think we want here and now.

2. The Lord protects you. He is your stronghold in battle–your buttress, your strength when weakness overtakes you. He will not leave you to hang, but He is there with you in every moment, giving you grace in the hardest times. The psalmist knew this feeling all too well when he found himself looking to God alone after his friends had betrayed him. He declared, "Though many are against me, He will redeem me from my battle unharmed." (Ps. 55:18) And again in verse 22, "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken." The Lord is faithful to support and uphold His own.

3. The Lord fights for you. We get so easily entangled in battles of this world. We tirelessly build our alliances and hope at the end of the day, we come out on top. But this isn't like the Lord at all. I'm reminded of the Israelites and how their numbers were always smaller than those they came against. Did the Lord get frightened? Did He supernaturally lower the number of those against His people so that they would succeed? No, every time He proved His all-surpassing greatness and power by fighting for them. Just as He fought for them, He also fights for you.

There is a story about John Chrysostom, an ancient church father, who came before the emperor who threatened to exile him if he remained a Christian. Stories have it that the two go back and forth, but in final response, the emperor threatens, "But I will drive you away from man and you shall have no friend left." Chrysostom replied, "No, you cannot, for I have a friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me. I defy you; for there is nothing that you can do to hurt me." This man knew the truth of what was given to him in Christ and he knew that at the end of it all, there was One who stood closer than a brother, his friend, his Savior, Jesus Christ.

Friend, the world is hard and we do long for friends in our corner, but remember that all of that is temporary. What is here for you now, in Christ, and what awaits you in glory far exceeds any human offering of standing in your corner. May we be people who come to know the all-surpassing greatness of the Lord's love for us, of His friendship to us, and His ever-presence that is always for us. Fix your eyes on that promise. Jesus is in your corner. Rest in that.