Conquerors in Christ
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?... Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-32, 35-39
Nothing in this world matters to Satan than to see Christians defeated. His plan is to use circumstances in our life to show to us that we are alone and that God does not care. In our struggles in our Christian life, all Satan wants is for us to despair and give up. The Apostle Paul wrote Romans 8 to provide words to fellow struggler! Do not give in to that kind of torment and do not hang your head in defeat because the thing Satan wants is to see you defeated. This is his tactic with Job using Job’s wife and his friends. “His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). “My close friends detest me. Those I loved have turned against me” (Job 19:19). Satan knows very well that a beaten-up and downcast Christian is totally useless to Christ. From the text, the Apostle Paul made an emphatic declaration that nothing in this world or any event or any difficulty can separate a Christian from the love of Christ. “God is for us” (Rom. 8:31) and to have this knowledge means that God has the power to use all circumstances in our life for His purpose. When we believe and surrendered our lives to Christ and made Him the Lord of our lives, we are also called to suffer. “For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him” (Philippians 1:29). The grace of God poured out through the death of Jesus Christ at the cross is indeed greater than our sin. And He did not withhold this grace so He could provide us the relationship that reconciled us with Him. This grace is continually available to us working in our life through the leading of the Holy Spirit. As Paul said in Philippians 1:6, this is our confidence “...that he Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.” We are more than conquerors because of Christ who is in us! Going through trials? Be encouraged and less defeated!
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman
www.my-wbc.com
