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My God is…for us Romans 8:31

Romans 8:31-39 – What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against balloon-head-about-to-explodeus?

Do you ever feel like you’re facing giants?

Some days are worse than others. Yesterday was a very bad day for me. Who’s fault. Mine. All mine. I let a troubling email get me down before going to church. I was distracted during the sermon, thinking about said email. Then after church I was extremely hungry (it was now 2 pm , and I’m not such a fun person when I haven’t had anything to eat. I come in the house from running and errand, my husband was busy making a gourmet lunch for him and the boys (OK, it was just Mac & Cheese), so I decided to make myself some soup (all with a very bad attitude). I decided I was really hungry, so I made a quesadilla as well. During the making of the quesadilla, I spilled salsa and had to clean that up. My soup was now boiling. I turned it down, and put the quesadilla in the microwave (for too long). When I took it out, there was cheese melted over onto the microwave. I grabbed the Clorox wipes, pulled one out to clean the microwave, and proceeded to drop it in my soup. UGHHHH! The day didn’t get better from there, until way later. But I’ll spare you the rest of my self-imposed drama.

I felt like everything was against me

No matter what I did yesterday, it seemed like it was all going to Hell in a hand basket. Even when things started looking up, they came back to bite me. It was a rough one for sure. But while I was out on my afternoon walk, I prayed. I prayed and prayed. It was during this walk that I could feel my heart shifting from anxiousness to peace, from anger to kindness and patience. Unfortunately I had already made many other people’s day worse in the mean time. Have you ever felt like no matter what you do, everything is falling apart around you?

If God is for us

And God is for us. He is on our side. Later in the chapter our verse was taken from, we are encouraged with these words: “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.”

What can separate us from the love of God? 

Nothing. Not even:

  • death
  • life
  • angels
  • demons
  • present
  • future
  • any powers
  • height
  • depth

Nor anything else. Nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love. Even when things are hitting the fan and we feel overwhelmed by even the simplest things, His love is there. We can turn to Him, pray and know that if God is for us, who can be against us. He is for us. He is for you and for me. He promises to be there for us, and we can trust Him to live up to His word. Put your trust in Him and let Him help you out of the trouble you’re in. Cling to Him that you might know freedom from the pains you’re feeling. All things are in His power and control. Turn your junk over to God. Truly give it to Him to take care of and expect Him to show up in amazing and unusual ways. God is good.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

 

 
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Posted by on April 8, 2013 in My God is for us

 

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My God is…Filling Colossians 1:9-14

Colossians 1:9-14 – For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.water-pour We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,  and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We continually ask God to fill you

Do you ever feel empty? You have amazing wonderful things going on in your world, yet you feel like you’re missing something? Or maybe you’re going through something really tough and you feel like you’re all alone. Maybe you worked really hard to lose weight, but when you did you realized it didn’t change your relationship with your husband the way you thought it would. We all get disappointed. Why? We see the answer in our verse above.

The knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives

What is the answer? The answer is knowing God’s will for us through wisdom and understanding from the Spirit. Some of you might say, “How do I get that?”, well, one way the spirit comes to us is through Baptism, another is through scripture, and thirdly from prayer. I know some of you pretty well by now, and someone is going to email me and say – “Really? Is that all there is for me?” I know as humans we want to DO SOMETHING! But the truth is the thing we really need to do is spend time with God. Put Him first above everything else. Spend time with Him. You say you’ve tried reading scripture and praying, do it more. Maybe hear some scripture through some Christian music. Get engaged in a Bible study, by yourself or with others.

So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way:

  • bearing fruit in every good work
  • growing in the knowledge of God
  • being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might
  • you may have great endurance and patience
  • giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light

God wants these things for us so we can live a life that God has planned for us, because it brings Him pleasure for us to live with Him in our lives. When we do that, we are going to bear more fruit. We’re going to grow in our relationship with Him. You know the friends you’ve spent a lot of time with pretty well, don’t you. Spend that kind of time with the Lord and watch what happens. Some of you have been going through some really tough things lately, we’ve been praying for many of you, and this next part made me think of you. If you’re in relationship with the Lord through the Holy Spirit, you will be strengthened with all power. Not a little power, you will be strengthened with all power. God parted the Red Sea, saved Daniel from the Lion’s Den and Rose Jesus from the dead, I think He can strengthen and preserve you too. He can handle what you’re going through. What’s another benefit of walking with the Lord? You will have endurance, you will be able to get through the tough times and miracle of miracles you will gain patience (I always seem to need more patience). All of this He does for us so that we might bring Him glory, showing His greatness to the world. In these tough experiences, we are developing the testimonies that the Holy Spirit could use to encourage others to come to faith. To God be the Glory.

 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. AMEN!!!

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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