Positive Power of God’s Promises!

 

READ Romans 5–8

How can I put these two thousand plus words into a coherent expression of the deep joy they produce in my heart? Every time I read them, I’m filled with gratitude at the wonder of God’s gracious gift of Jesus and what He has done. This passage begins:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1–2)

If that were not enough, it tells how Jesus gives hope because He reveals how suffering produces endurance, character, and hope — because His love is poured into that mix. He died for me before I was born, before I sinned, justified me, saved me from God’s wrath. I “rejoice in God through my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom I have now received reconciliation.”

The passage reminds me how one act of disobedience in Eden led to condemnation for all, but one act of righteousness by Jesus Christ leads to justification and life for all. “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18–19) Such a great wonder that God did this for sinners!

But there is more. I died with Jesus. This means that because I have “been united with him in a death like his, I shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” This is not a someday promise that death will have no dominion over me, but that sin no longer has dominion over me, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Chapter 7 describes the battle with sin that can be won because of Jesus. I struggle against sin that tries to hang on to me like a leech or is a taskmaster. Before salvation, I could not resist and often could not recognize it. But now my loving Savior has opened my eyes to the spiritual realities of sin’s danger and sin’s defeat — and He gives me victory as well as forgiveness!

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1–4)

This is a great wonder of the Gospel. It is not merely a religion of belief in the event of Jesus, but power over sin because Jesus changes lives. It is a black or white reality depending on a relationship not on rules . . .

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:9–11)

The change is in: my assurance — the Spirit bears witness that I belong to Him; and in any suffering I might experience — the Spirit reveals God’s good purpose for it; and in my praying — I don’t know how to pray but He intercedes for me.

What then shall I say to these things? If God is for me, who can be against me? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for me, how will he not also with him graciously give me all things? Who shall bring any charge against me? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for me. Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? The Bible says, “For His sake I may be killed; regarded as a sheep to be slaughtered” but in all these things I am more than a conqueror through him who loved me. I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, (even my foolish self) will be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31–39, personalized)

I live in the certainty of the promises of God, a certainty that persists and puts peace in my heart. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

 

Emotional highs and lows

It’s been a week of challenges for my attitude and emotions. Prayer for great needs and experiencing great answers to prayer, feeling helpless and experiencing God’s help, great fatigue yet God’s rest and renewal to keep going. Last night my hubby wanted us to watch a movie. It was a war story based on true events and I usually avoid those but watched it with him. I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking of two little Jewish boys in the movie being loaded on a boxcar along with that bin of shoes in the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

Part of the night was spent in prayer. I confessed to God the guilt of all humanity for our callous cruelty to one another. World War II is only part of it. The daily news is full of it. I felt broken by the movie and those thoughts and the dreams I had after finally falling asleep. I cannot imagine surviving actual events like these when I am not able to deal with a mere movie about them.

Yet God blesses me with this morning’s verse of the day — a great promise from the Lord:

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

Concentration camp survivor Corrie ten Boom tells of her fears. She was uncertain about the future and God was not giving her any assurance. Her father reminded her that when they took a train trip, they received the ticket just when they needed it, not before, and that God was like that. She would get the strength when needed, not ahead of the need.

This truth is a learning curve for all of us. In the last part of Philippians, Paul told the church in that city that he was happy about their care for him, yet he had learned something about being needy:

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:10–13)

He had learned . . . another learning curve because his contentment is not our natural reaction to the demands of life. He learned to be content, not because he didn’t think about the future but because he had learned about God’s care, God’s promises. He knew that God would give him his ticket when he needed it, not before. In that confidence, he rested and relaxed. He didn’t worry about good or bad events for God is in them and would uphold him with His righteous right hand.

The emotions I’m feeling are different from what they would be had I been at that train station watching people being taken to camps and gas chambers. Nevertheless, they are strong emotions. I need to turn to God’s promises and focus on His grace to give me what I need when I need it. Will I soon get over my dismay and feelings of sorrow about what I saw on the screen and in my dreams? I do not know. What I do know is that God is showing me His great heart for the horrors of human suffering. Before Christ came into my life, I didn’t know what godly sorrow felt like.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dearest Lord Jesus, Paul also wrote that he suffered loss that for a reason: “I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” Perhaps my deep emotions are Your way of helping me to know You better, to know how You suffer over the folly of sin and the way it destroys our lives. One thing is certain — I’m feeling a greater desire than ever to intercede for others, for believers who suffer and especially for those who are lost and in need of Your great grace.

Today’s thankful list . . .

Freedom to sleep as long as needed.

Hot baths (this will be often on this list).

A long walk through the pedways downtown.

O Henry chocolate bars.

The ability to fix some computer problems.

More rain (we must need it or we would not be getting it).