God Is For Us

God Is For Us
Words and Music by Paxson and Allison Jeancake, 2009

When we're gripped by doubt and fear,
And the only voice we hear
Is guilt and shame, accusation, lies.

When we feel all alone,
Like there's nowhere to turn;
When temptation is knocking on our door.

That's when we call your name,
Let your love cast out our shame;
Know the voice of our Savior rising near.

God is for us, God is for us;
There's no need to fear he knows us each by name.
God is for us, smiling over us;
There's no need to fear he knows us each by name.

When our enemy draws near,
And our faith disappears;
When we feel defeated, overwhelmed by life.

When we moved into our new California home in February (after living in a garage apartment for six months!), all of the belongings that we had in storage in Atlanta arrived on a big truck. Needless to say I had mixed emotions. I was excited to be moving into our own home, but I was not looking forward to all of the unpacking.

At the end of the day, as I dropped the last box of books off at the church, I had one of those "God moments." I was thinking to myself, "Wow, this day actually went pretty smoothly. It wasn't overwhelming, nothing was damaged, everything worked out very well." As soon as I had that thought it was like the Lord spoke to me and said, "I'm for you."

Wow. I knew immediately and profoundly what those few words meant. I think one of my biggest struggles is really believing that God loves me as much as his Word says he does. I have trouble believing in my heart that God is truly for me, that I'm worthy of his love because of Christ's merit and because I'm his child. That rainy day in February, he reminded me of that transforming truth.

I knew it would make it's way into a song one day. Recently I sat down with my guitar and my bible opened to Romans 8:31-34 ("If God is for us, who can ever be against us?"). Within minutes an idea began to emerge that I felt was worth pursuing. When I reached what is the pre-chorus, the words and the melody came together ("That's when we call your name..."), and I felt like I had something special.

I feel like this song honestly conveys the way we feel at times, but with a desire to know our Savior's voice rising above the taunts of the enemy and our own doubt and unbelief.