God is for us!

Have you ever had one of those moments when it just seemed like God was trying to get your attention... the same thing comes up over and over again in all kinds of contexts. That happens to me often. I guess the Lord has to do a little extra to get His message through my thick head, at least my wife would agree with that.

Our associate pastor said something in her welcoming comments that was encouraging and stuck with me. She said, “No matter what we are going through… no matter what we have done, God is for us!” What a promise. As I settled into the crazy cacophony of noise and the hectic pace of this week, I would have probably quickly forgotten this powerful promise. But then I read this in my morning devotion:

9 I took you from the ends of the earth,
from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, 'You are my servant';
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:9-10

I think the Lord wanted me to dwell a little while on the reality that He is for us... He is for me! And I was reminded of that powerful passage in John 15 - You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

It has nothing to do with us – who we are, what we’ve done, where we come from. It has everything to do with Him! God’s character is holy love… love that is not conditional or changing, but constant and for all. And Jesus is the ultimate sign that God is for us. Through His call He says, “I choose you.” On the cross He says, “I am for you.” By the power of His resurrection He says, “I am with you, always!”

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39