Tonight with our home group after some time of prayer, we shared some questions we wish we could understand...things we are wrestling through with God. Things like, why do bad things happen that seem unfair, does God really love me, do I really believe all this stuff in the Bible, can I trust that God is really going to come through with taking care of me?, etc.
So when I got home I was reading Oswald Chambers devotional for tomorrow (I know, I shouldn't read ahead, but sometimes I can't help it). He was talking about some of our questions and the reference was Romans 8. He said "God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says - I will be with him in the trouble." Romans 8:35 says "who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or harship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" We are not promised to not have those things but to be able to be more than conquerors in those things (vs. 37).
The questions Oswald poses are "can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie? Can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors even while being starved? " We have to choose to hold on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's favor. We have to surrender our expectations, our fleshly desires and choose to believe. Trusting that God is who He says He is and laying down our own lives as we walk through those trials. Fortunately the passage ends with Romans 8:39 saying that nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus!
Thank you God that even when I can not fully understand, your word to me is so very clear! Help me Lord to be able to take those things I know with my head and feel them fully in my heart.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Reasoning Together
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6 comments:
good stuff, meleea. Thanks for that. Praise God that we are never separated from His love.
you know, last week on the radio... i think it was ron mehl, or maybe bill richey (they both really spoke to me last week) anyway, one of them was saying... god wants to show you his love in the good times and the bad (my paraphrase). so we don't think like job's friends did... thanks meleea!
Meleea, well said! What a powerful statement of faith you just wrote. Dawn
Amen! Makes me think of how easy it is to let our hardships (real or perceived) weigh us down and to forget that He is there, with an outstretched arm, that if we only take hold of His hand, He can help us to rise up and stand firm, much like any parent would if their child is struggling to gain their footing. Praise God that we can be 'more than conquerors'! Thanks Meleea, for sharing your words of wisdom and insight!
AMEN!!
Thanks, I think I needed that too. Sometimes it's just so hard to be a conquerer. I think lately, I've just been wanting to put down my dukes and quit conquering the bad stuff.
I actually jumped over here to tell you that I would be interested in photo journaling the mural painting.
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