Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8: 31-39 (NIV)
So what is life like for you these days?
Up? A little down? Joyful? Some uncertainty looming? Anxious about something?
Whatever life is like at the moment, let me suggest that we reread those verses of scripture written by the Apostle Paul set out above. Maybe a few times each day. They contain some of the greatest assurances of hope, promise and comfort for us that there are. For me, those verses have been a continual reminder and source of strength through years of challenge, difficulty and disappointment, and in the things I, and those I love, face today.
We’ve talked about this passage before. We’ve read these scriptures before. Yet Satan is alive and at work in the world, and through worldly forces, doubt, fear and temptations which pull us away from being all we were created to be, he does his very best to try to pull us away from the promise contained in that passage.
A promise from God, which God inspired and directed Paul to write, affirming that nothing—that is, NOTHING—can ever separate us from His love, a love which was revealed to us again in Christ and what Christ did for us through His birth, then death and then resurrection.
Nothing can separate us from Him and His love. He is closer to you than the nearest person to you is right now—and He never leaves your side. He is within you, beside, in front of, and behind you—He is everywhere you are.
It reminds me of a time when our granddaughters Hannah and Ellie Kate were staying with us while Nathan and Amy were on a trip. They called to talk to the girls a number of times each day, and during one of those calls while Nathan was talking to Ellie Kate, Ellie Kate asked if she could speak to her Mommy.
And added to her request this matter-of-fact statement—“Is she right beside you?”
Actually Amy wasn’t right next to Nathan then—she was helping someone with something. But that’s how Ellie Kate saw her Mom and Dad—right next to each other, never separated from each other, leading to her question of absolute fact for her—“Is she right beside you?”
That’s how Paul wants us to see our relationship with Christ—never separated—with Christ always right beside us.
So what is it that is on your list today or you see coming up in the days ahead—joy, doubt, fear, low self-esteem, having to prove yourself to someone or the world, some storm in your family you didn’t expect, expectations of others, guilt, a mistake you made, a habit you need to break, a heartache which has just hit?
Remember this in the midst of anything you face and walk through, and no matter what it is—it cannot separate you from the God who is there with you—attached to you at the hip, so to speak.
Nothing will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Believe it. Claim it. Embrace it in and for every moment of your life.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2015. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
