Romans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted 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, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This episode talks about how if we are not careful we can let things turn us away from Christ. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
We Are More Than Conquerors Through Him Who Loved Us
Romans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted 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, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This scripture verse is letting us know that there is nothing that we can do that will separate us from God’s love. It is also telling us that we should not interpret the bad things that are happening in our lives as proof that God has stopped loving us. God will continue to love us forever. There is nothing that we can do to change this. The verse is asking us if hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword will separate us from Christ. This is a tough question because these things can separate us if we let them. One really important part of this verse is when it says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Do you need to hear that again? “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
If this is the case, then why do we feel so defeated at times? Some of the things listed above can absolutely separate us from Christ if we let them. Have you ever gone through a hardship and instead of feeling closer to God, you felt farther away? Have you ever struggled to see where God was in all of your pain? This can happen to a lot of people. I just heard about a couple that lost one of their 6 month old little twins. Lose of a child is something that can really strain your relationship with God. Losing a loved one is always hard. However, losing a child has got to be one of the hardest to understand. It makes no sense to us. Why did she have to die? Why would God do this to their family? Why wouldn’t God heal her, as we know that He can? When we are hurting we tend to lash out and we try to find someone to blame. God is a good candidate as He is strong and He can take our anger. God doesn’t mind when we yell at Him, as He understands what we are going through.
The problem is when we don’t process our anger and our grief and we stay mad at God. If we are able to lean into God instead of turning away from Him in anger, God can give us the strength to get back up again after we have been knocked down. God can ease our pain and help us to get out of bed in the morning. God can help us find a reason to go on. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We can defeat the grief we feel if we turn to God and ask Him to help us. The same is true with any hardship you are going through. Maybe you have lost your job, and you don’t know how you are going to provide for your family right now. Turn to God and He will help you provide. He will provide for you if you ask Him too, He is that amazing!
What about persecution and famine, could that separate you from Christ? I can see how it could. If you are being persecuted for your beliefs, you may start to hide your beliefs more so that you fit in with the crowd. You may even compromise your beliefs just so that you do not get persecuted anymore. Today when I was listening to the Bible in a Year podcast Father Mike read from 2 Maccabees 6. It told the story of a wise old man named Eleazar. The Greeks were trying to get the Jews to become more the like Greeks. They were trying to force Eleazar to eat pork, which was against Jewish laws. His friends were telling him that it would be ok, he could eat whatever meat he wanted to eat, but it would look like he was eating the pork. The Greeks wouldn’t know the difference and Eleazar wouldn’t have to die.
However, Eleazar refused saying that if people saw him eat the meat and thought that he had gone against the Lord’s law, then they too might sin and He couldn’t do that. Eleazar was able to withstand the persecution, but what about those that didn’t. Persecution and famine can definitely mess with your head. Most of us don’t want to die, especially if that dying involves torture and a painful death. We also don’t want to starve to death. When you don’t have anything to eat and you haven’t had anything for a very long time, you will do somethings that you normally wouldn’t. The same goes for how you act when your life is on the line.
These things don’t have to separate us from the Lord. If we turn to Him, and ask Him for help, we will get the help we are looking for. Remember, it says right in this verse that, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We can conquer anything with Christ. He is there for us and He will help us get through whatever it is we are going through. The only thing we need to do is ask for this help and then accept when He offers it to us. I know accepting help can be hard. We think we need to be strong and do it all ourselves. I am telling you, accept the help. Accept the help, even if it looks different than you thought it would. You never know how God will reach out and help. Sometimes it is through a complete stranger, sometimes it is exactly what you asked for and sometimes it is nothing like the help that you asked for. The thing is, God knows best. If He is sending you help it is because that is exactly what you need right now. Accept it. Trust that He knows what He is doing. I will end with the end of the verse as I think it sums it up nicely and it doesn’t really need any explaining. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to lean into you in times of distress and not turn away. Lord, give us the strength to not let anything separate us from your love. Give us the strength to get back up again when life knocks us down. Help us to process our grief in a way that does not blame you for all that is going wrong. Help us to see that you are with us through all the bad and the good. We love you Lord, you are so amazing, help us to never forget that. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving to those of you that are in America. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow, have a blessed day!!