The Lord Has Been with Me

"Let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone."
GENESIS 35:3
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The Lord Has Been with Me
Because of [our ingratitude] we do not acknowledge God or give Him thanks that the Son of God has changed eternal death into temporal punishment. For we want to live agreeably and in ease in this life, and we shudder at and avoid even a small cross. But there is need of the mortification of the flesh, and this obedience must be shown under the cross with a calm mind so that we are grateful because we know that Christ died for our sins. . .. Since Jacob praises God with such great joy as his Liberator from bodily temptations, how much more appropriate will it be for us to confess and give thanks for eternal and temporal blessings! To the fact of being heard he adds that God "has been with me wherever I have gone." He was truly with Jacob and attested it by His actual work of liberation. But this was quite hidden and not apparent. It was as Jeremiah says (Lamentations 3:22): "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." For as far as appearances and outward sight was concerned, the devil, Laban, and despair were with him, but Jacob says: "During all of these 30 years the Lord has been with me."
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