You might say I have a trivial mind. I have trouble recalling my social security number, but I remember the date of the Battle of Hastings (1066). I forget the names of people I have met on multiple occasions, but I recollect the name of Donna Reed's character in It’s a Wonderful Life (Mary Hatch Bailey). This talent has not been particularly helpful except when I tried out for Jeopardy! Out of 300 contestants, I was one of only 11 that passed the test. The fact that they never called me to be on the show was not eternally significant. After all, it was just a trivial pursuit.
But there are some questions in life whose answers are not trivial. Are my co-workers undermining me with my boss? Are my friends dissing me behind my back? Is my boyfriend going to dump me? Will my husband leave me for a younger woman? Will my children neglect me in my old age? Will God ever give up on me? Will God ever leave me?
I don't know the answer to the first five questions, but the answers to the last two is no. God will never give up on me. He will never leave me. In his letter to the Romans, Paul encouraged the Roman Christians to consider the answers to some crucial questions. Read through the following verses and find the questions that go with the answers below--Jeopardy! Style. (Hint the questions are in the order they appear in the text.)
What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for He is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (Even the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.") No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)
Answer Question
1. Yeah, God!
2. No One
3. Yes!!
4. No one
(except Satan—see Revelation 12:10
and God doesn’t listen to him!)
5. No!
6. No one
7. No
8. No
9. No
Paul had just finished telling the Romans the wonderful news that God’s Holy Spirit lives within us. We are not under condemnation because the Spirit sets us free from the curse of the law and enables us to live a life that pleases God. The Spirit assures us that we are God's children and his heirs who will share in Christ's glory. Even when times get tough, and we don't know where to turn or how to pray, the Spirit comes alongside us searches out our deepest desires and communicates them to the Father. “What can we say about such wonderful things as these?” The only answer I can think of is Yeah, God!
God is for us. He has picked us to be on his team. He has sent his Son to die for us. He has given us his Spirit to live within us. “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” No one. People may try to tear us up and spit us out, but ultimately, they will be unsuccessful. Life may get us down, but God is there to gently pick us up and put us back on our feet. Since God has proven his support for us allowing His only Son to die on our behalf, “won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?” The answer is a resounding yes. Now I don’t think that means, as some prosperity preachers would tell you, that you should pray the old Janis Joplin song, Oh Lord Wont You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz. But it does mean God has provided everything we need to live in celebration of all that God is and has done. Even if you drive an old rust bucket or take the bus, that life will satisfy you and pleases God.
“Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? Will God? No! Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus?” Some people view God as accusatory and condemning. They think that God may put up with our little sins, but just wait until we sin big and God will give us the boot. What a distortion! Just the opposite is true. God doesn't put up with any sin. He hates it all. He hated sin so much that He sent His Son to die for it and take it away once and for all. Now when he sees us in Christ, we are holy and blameless. He sees nothing to accuse us of and nothing to condemn us for.
To learn this first life lesson, that I can depend on God's love, I have had to wrestle with these last two questions:
Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?
Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble?
I wondered where is God when I lost a long-coveted job. I have felt panic when told I might have an aneurysm in my brain. I was overwhelmed with grief when my dad, then my mom and then my sister died. But through these experiences and hundreds bigger and smaller, “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love.” In fact, when I lost that job, when I thought I might die and when my family members did die, God’s love was more real to me than it had ever been before. There is nothing I, nor anyone else, can do to put a wedge between God and me. No circumstance is so horrific that it can stop God's love from reaching me. As Nazi concentration camp survivor, Corrie Ten Boom said, “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”1 When I find myself in the pits, I encourage myself with God’s promise, “‘I will never, never fail you nor forsake you.’ That is why we can say without any doubt or fear, ‘The Lord is my Helper, and I am not afraid of anything that mere man can do to me.’” (Hebrews 13:5-6, TLB)
Learning the Lesson
Take a few minutes to write down a love letter that you imagine God would send to you. Pray and ask God what He wants to say to you. Then just start writing. You'll be amazed at the result. Then write a love letter back to God expressing thanks that His is a love you can always depend
No comments:
Post a Comment