Assured and strengthened by the love of God
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? (As 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 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. 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. Romans 8:35-39 Going through trials in life due to circumstances and persecutions could make a Christian disillusioned as to the worthiness of following God and serving Him. Yet as the Lord Jesus Christ had said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows” (John 16:33). Despite such realities we deal with, God called us to take heart and experience the peace that God provides. There is nothing we could ever experience in this world, no matter how awful or frightening, could ever separate us from the love of God. This is what Paul wanted to convey to Christians in his time and also what God wants us to hear in our time. There are no trials and experiences that can cause anguish that we might ever suffer so intense that God’s love for us would be shaken. Because of the love of God so strong and stable, no matter how great the persecution could be that it will bring painful anguish, God’s love will bring comfort to our hearts. Scarcity might famish us of food, but our hunger could be filled and satisfied by the Father’s love. Even death itself is incapable of robbing us of our heavenly Father’s infinite love. If our view of reality of God’s love is limited by our circumstances, we could become confused. There may be times when you will ask, “How could a loving God allow this to happen to me?” You may begin to question if God will be true to His promises as stated in His Word. God promised us that we would never be separated from His love. But He did not say that we would never face hardship, persecution, poverty, or danger. If we doubt that God could love us and still allow us to experience difficult experiences, consider the coming of Jesus in this world and how He lived His life. He emptied Himself and died on the cross to show to us how much God loves us. Such loving action should forever settle any doubt or question we might have about God’s love. Once this gets settled within us, we will approach life and its difficulties differently. No matter how hard circumstances would be, we can be confident in our knowledge that there will never be anything that could separate us from God’s perfect love. Don’t ever judge or shortchange God’s love just because of your circumstances, instead evaluate your circumstances from the perspective of God’s love.
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman
www.my-wbc.com
