for it is the LORD, your God, who marches with you;
he will never fail you or forsake you.
The greatest army is not the strongest. It is the one with whom God marches. The greatest in the kingdom of Heaven is not the most highly qualified professional with the best education or the most impressive resume.
Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
In fact, the only way to the promised land is to trust in the God who marches with us. The only way to the kingdom is to become like a child. Otherwise we will fear and dread. We will ultimately turn aside from foes greater than ourselves.
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all people (cf. Deu. 7:6-7).
It isn't our great number, our strength, or our qualifications for which God chooses us.
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
He chooses us because he loves us. He does not choose the qualified but instead qualifies the chosen. He tells us that somehow we are his own chosen portion. We are the part he wants all for himself. We are the one sheep which he will not abandon. He does not leave us to wander lost. He does not leave us to face the wolves alone. He seeks us out and brings us back tenderly to his arms, the arms of the Good Shepherd. This works when we are willing to be small, when we let ourselves be shepherded, and when we allow ourselves to be children protected by our Father. Let's trust in him to march with us. No matter how strong the enemy armies arrayed against us let us trust that our God is stronger and that he will never fail or forsake us.
It is the LORD who marches before you;
he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you.
So do not fear or be dismayed.”
God wants us to experience the love which he gives to his own. He wants us to know what it means to be his sons and daughters. He desires that we say with John, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." When we truly experience this we also experience the Fatherhood of God. We cry out "Abba! Father!" (cf. 8:15) and march with him into the promised land, the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us sing his renown. Let us proclaim the greatness of our God!
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