THURSDAY April 18th
Romans 8:35-36
‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”’
When we started looking at the life and the ministry of Paul in these devotions you may recall that immediately after his conversion while heading for Damascus, that Ananias was sent to tell him that he was going to be used to take the gospel to the Gentiles, to kings and to the children of Israel. The narrative continued with these words ‘I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name’, Acts 9:16.
Well, as Paul penned these words here in Romans 8, he knew exactly what he was talking about, as he listed the various things, tribulation, distress, persecution, etc. he himself had experienced these things, just as the Lord had said he would when he was converted. He really had known what it was to suffer for the sake of the name of Jesus, and however many years later it was that he considered these things as he pondered back over his life, he concluded that not one of these things had succeeded in separating him from the love of Christ.
It is in 2 Corinthians 6 that Paul says the following ‘. . . but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger . . . We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.’
Wow, as a pastor, I have it so easy, but also as a local church we all have it so easy, and yet I wonder how quick we are to moan or groan about the simplest, and smallest of things, we have to sacrifice a little time here and there, imagine having to go through hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment etc. for the sake of the gospel and on account of the fact that we hold to the name of Jesus.
A word of warning—we may not have it as easy as we move forward, the world around us is changing quicker than I am sure that any of us ever expected it to change, the world is becoming increasingly more hostile towards those who hold onto the name of Jesus, it is becoming more anti-God and anti-Christ almost on a daily basis, none of us know what lies ahead, should the Lord tarry, therefore we need to ensure that we position ourselves into the place where we will be found under the protection of Almighty God, we need to let go of the world and it’s ideologies that are anti-bible and anti-God and anti his righteous ways and position ourselves into the safest place available which is the incredible everlasting love of Christ. We cannot flirt with the world, it is a far too dangerous position to be found in, for the enemy, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. We MUST RESIST him, we MUST be FIRM in our faith remembering that ‘after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.’ (1 Peter 5)
I end with a challenge to each one of us, as we review the week, maybe this week we are going through or the week that has just passed, and consider how we spent our time, how much of it was spent on that which really offers us absolutely nothing in regard to the safe keeping of our soul compared to that which was helpful and beneficial to building us up spiritually, ensuring that we are being kept safe in the love of Christ. ‘Nothing shall separate us’ means that we must, we need to be in the position of being found in the love of Christ.