Issue 20 - Day 5

Romans 8

Romans 8:35-39
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 thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37)  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that 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 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is nothing that we face that can separate us from the love of God. For most of us we will never face anything like the trials listed here. The early church were thrown to the loins, burned alive, tortured, boiled, and generally attacked all the time for their faith, yet they stood strong, because anything that happened to them just meant they would arrive before the Lord that little bit sooner.

For us it is more subtil. From God’s point of view this is all true, nothing at all can get between him and us except for sin, for which we seek him for forgiveness. so even with sin, we can still get through to God in order that we may be forgiven. From our point of view it is not so bright. It seems that family, friends, work commitments, sports and TV appear to separate us from the love of God. Imagine that you are standing in a field with God by your side. There is indeed nothing that can get between you. Even if you run as fast as you can he will always stay with you. Unfortunately we often look away from God to other things. God is still with us. God still hears us. We however do not see him or hear him as he is stuck standing behind us. Time to turn around!