Just shortly before Jesus ended His ministry on earth and ascended back to heaven, He gathered his disciples on the Mount of Olives and commissioned them to “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” What an enormous task! The disciples must have wondered how on earth they would be able to carry out the Lord’s command.

But, blessing of blessings, Jesus didn’t stop there.  The very next words Jesus said compose one of the most wonderful things Jesus ever promised: “Be sure of this,” He guaranteed, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20 NLT).

Bible teacher F. B. Meyer, points out that Jesus didn’t say, “I was with you;” He didn’t say, “I will be with you.” He used the present tense—”I am with you” and then added that glorious word “always.”[1]

That promise applies not just to the disciples but to everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ. It applies to you. It means that never, ever will you be alone. Do you remember that one of the names given to Jesus was Immanuel, which means “God is with us”?  My favorite promise of His presence is in Hebrews, where God said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you” (verse 5 NLT).

An old hymn puts it this way:

No, never alone; no, never alone.
He promised never to leave me,
Never to leave me alone.[2]

[1] F. B. Meyer, The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life (Harrisburg, PA, Christian Publications, reprinted 1965), 6

[2] https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/688, accessed December 14, 2023