Secure

We started Bible Study Fellowship yesterday.  The book we are going to be studying this year is Revelation.  We are looking to see God's love and faithfulness while diving into this book this season.  As a start off we were asked to read Romans 8:31-39 and share our thoughts and impressions on this much loved passage of Scripture. 

Romans 8:31-39  31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:  For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”  37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 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.  NKJV

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.  35 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 hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.  NLT

31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:  They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.  None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.  MSG

One of the things I like to do is look up verses in multiple translations.  My favorite version to use is the New Living Translation.  But I also like to see what other versions say.  Sometimes they have a way of putting things that puts a light on something in a new or clearer way.  This was the case with these verses.  

I loved the way The Message Bible put it. "Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us?"  Think about that, God holds us so tightly, so securely, that no one and nothing any where, place or time can separate us from His love.  We are tightly held!!  

There is so much security in these words.  And it really spoke to my heart this week.  God wants us to know, that no matter what, He doesn't let go of us.  Even if we are walking in the darkest circumstance, the most difficult of times, we are still tightly and infinitely held by Him.  He wants YOU to know that today.  So go ahead and soak that truth up, bury it deep in your heart and let it transform the way you think about yourself and our Father.  You are secure.  Tightly held.  Forever!

Lord, thank You for this simple, yet profound and comforting message .  It's something I forget and take for granted.  So often when things are not going the way I want I question Your love and commitment to me. We can look through the whole Bible and see Your faithfulness.  You never forget Your people.  Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.  What a joy for us!  Praise You!!  

Memorize Psalm 118:1  Remind yourself when you feel forgotten or unloved by God.  Feelings aren't fact!  Meditate on the verses in Romans for a while.  There is so much great stuff to unpack in there!