If God be for us...

Today as I was reading a book that I haven’t read in almost twenty years, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, I read a scripture that I have read and heard many times.  Songs have been written about this scripture and it is quite a wonderfully positive verse.  “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31  Like I said, it is a fantastic scripture and one that we need to repeat and memorize until it becomes very real in our lives.  As the scripture say, we know that when God is on our side, it doesn’t matter who the enemy is, or what they may to do try to distract us, disable us, or cause us to fail because God is our side fighting our battle.  That is exactly how I read and understood the verse when I read it today – the first time I read it anyway.  But I read it again and for some reason it came out differently and something new and fresh came to my understanding.  This is the way I saw it the second time I read it yesterday: “If God before us, who can be against us?”  Really it is just a difference in the cadence in which I read it but what a change.  Such a little difference but to me it was the realization that God must truly be before us.  We can’t lead the lost without God before us.  We can’t “take up our cross and follow him” unless he be before us.  We can’t show others the paths of righteousness unless He be before us.  This reminds me of the song, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”   When I follow Jesus, who can be against me?