Monday, July 7, 2014

Who Shall Separate you from the love of Christ?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written:For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
 
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8-:35-39).
 
The daily struggles of life are enough to make a person depressed and want to give up. From finances, to sickness, to loss of a loved one, the trials we face can cause us to question God’s love and sovereignty. Many times in my own life I’ve asked God, “Where are you? Do You not see me? What are You doing?” Some of the battles we face and trials we endure can cause us to become bitter with God or even lead us astray from the will of God. As I prayed today, I became discouraged because sometimes it seems as if I pray often but get no answer. Though I felt this way, I know that the true reason that I keep seeking God is because I know He exists and He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Another reason that I continue to seek God even though I may not get answers to my prayers right away, is because I’m determined to know and love God. The Lord has put a determination in my heart to love Him, to seek Him, and to serve Him with my whole heart. I believe that this determination has come because of the different tests that I’ve endured, like unanswered prayer.  
 
As I read the scripture it reminded me that no matter what I’m going through God still loves me. And so it is with you. No matter what you are facing, don’t let the enemy tell you that God doesn’t love you, or that He has forgotten about you. That’s a lie. The Apostle Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Will you let these things separate you from the love of God? Be determined to know Him, to love Him, and to commune with Him even in your distress. These things that are happening to you are working out for you a greater glory. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).
 
I want to encourage you today as you read Romans 8:35-39. Nothing that we have done or anything that we face in life is able to separate us from the love of God. He loves us with an everlasting love. Just because you are going through or you don’t get answers to your prayers doesn’t mean that God has stopped loving you. Furthermore, it doesn’t mean that you should stop loving God. So
even when your prayers remain unanswered. Even when you become weary in well doing. Even when you are facing every trial known to man. Ask yourself, “What or who shall separate me from the love of Christ?” The Bible says that even in these various trials, you are more than a conqueror through Him who loves you.
 
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body
(2 Corin. 4:7-10).

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