For many months, or perhaps even a year or two, I had a piece of paper on my wall on which I’d written the verse, “Fear not, for I am with you…” (Isaiah 41:10a ESV)

I had scribbled the words across the paper using crayon while teaching a Sunday school class. I debated throwing it out when the class ended. Instead, I folded it and slipped it into my bag. When I got home, I decided to stick the verse on my bedroom wall. I used a little sticky-tack to do so.

Over the following months, that verse was often a refreshing reminder and a needed encouragement. God was with me. When things got challenging, I wasn’t alone. He would help me. What an important reminder.

Gradually over time, the little piece of sticky-tack began to lose its stickiness. Then one day, I bumped the paper. It fell behind a desk and bedside table. I could not reach the paper to put it back up without moving the furniture and everything on top. Deeming that too much work, I left the paper where it was, knowing that one day I would find it again.

Several months went by.

The little piece of sticky-tack remained on the wall, reminding me of the absence of the paper. 

With the paper no longer there, I wasn’t frequently reminded of that beautiful verse: “Fear not, for I am with you…” (Isaiah 41:10a ESV)

As is often the case, life got busy and I became accustomed to not seeing the verse.

Then one day, as I sat in my room typing, I looked over at that little piece of sticky-tack and realized that I hadn’t thought of that verse for quite some time. Indeed, that very day I had been feeling a need to be reminded that God is with me.

This led me to ponder how sometimes in life, I easily and unintentionally slide from a place of closeness with God. I come to the point where I rarely remember to think of Him throughout the day. I forget that God is with me.

Sure I may still go to church on Sundays and read my Bible and pray, but I’m not mindful of His presence with me. My mind doesn’t keep jumping back to the things above. Songs of praise are rarely spontaneously on my lips.

Somewhere along the line, the frequent reminder of God’s presence with me slipped out of sight and I wasn’t intentional to put in the effort to bring it back. Like the paper, I let it slide and then, in the busyness of life, forgot about it.

Oh, that my heart would be inclined toward God and that my thoughts would often run to things above.

As Colossians 3:1-2 says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (ESV)

Today I dug out that paper and put it back up. This time I put it in a frame so it’ll be less likely to fall again. I want to keep in mind that God is with me. He has not left me alone. He will help me, and I am His.

“Fear not, for I am with you…”