Who Can Really Be Against Us?
Good Morning Friends,
Last night at choir practice we sang songs that cover the next three Sunday’s anthems and that gets us through Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday and beyond Easter. So this morning I am cognizant of a transformation that came, is coming and will come again… a transformation that will end sin’s reign and lift up our experience of the love of Jesus…that there is life after Easter. So, rejoice, God has chosen us and He and His love is so strong that nothing separates us from His love…absolutely
nothing separates us. So if we believe in our rebirth, Who Can Really Be Against Us?
Scripture: 28We know that all things work together for good* for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.*
30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.*
35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:28-39 (NRSV)
16’For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NRSV)
Message: Oh there is evil in this world. I am not naive. There is pain and suffering. But on this day, a few days before Palm and Passion Sunday and a little over a week before Good Friday I am already contemplating the birth pangs of a pregnant creation yearning for full deliverance. And God’s Spirit is right there helping me along, and, I hope, letting us all know that from the beginning of it all God was shaping the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the life of His Son…Yes, God is for us and there is nothing we could do to deserve it or thwart it. No matter whom you are or what you have done or what grief you face it is true. God is for us. He died for us and experienced hell for us and demonstrates in His love for us each day. He is a power so constant, a perfect love so unconditional, that it brings us to say, “God is love.” And in that tension of rebirth and love we are connected, caught up, tied up and wrapped up as a witness to the Gospel. That is the good news. When we receive this love and the wonderful grace it bestows…when we learn that Jesus is a love that lasts and He is a Lord that lives then we also see that in Him we have a labor that lingers. God, in His infinite love, is preparing us for our inheritance. So let us love, let us forgive, let us be justified, let us labor and be sanctified. Let us rejoice that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Let us sing out that God is for us.
Pray in this pregnant moment as the last days of Lent bring us face to face in the tension of our losses, burdens, pains, brokenness and sins, that God’s love would bring us resurrection of our spirit. Pray for those facing trials and tribulations….even death today. Pray that we realize that God is both the creator of this world and its history. Pray we look with astonishment realizing that there are a lot of things we can only leave to God. Pray we not sicken ourselves over those things we have no control. Pray we realize that beneath it all …beside it all…before it all…above it all, God is good. Pray that we realize that our joy in Christ is evidence that we serve a Loving God. Pray that we will be known as Christians because of our love. Pray that our unity grow. Pray that we are thankful. Pray that we dwell on the positive. Pray we are obedient to God’s word. Pray we find peace on the journey. Pray we discover that God is for us. Pray that we truly believe that no one can defeat us if we truly love God and have been chosen for His purpose. Pray we are encouraged by today’s question and its answer.
Pray, for the love of God; pray that we realize that God loves us unconditionally…just as we are. Pray that we realize that He does not love us any less because of our suffering. Pray we realize that God is for us and that makes all the difference in this world and the next.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 