NO MATTER WHAT
Opening Prayer
Holy Lord, may Your Word and Your Spirit empower me to live life each day in Your might and victory.
Read Romans 8:31–39
More Than Conquerors
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He 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? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither 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.
Footnotes
- Romans 8:36 Psalm 44:22
- Romans 8:38 Or nor heavenly rulers
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Sit quietly and take a few long, deep breaths. Focus your thoughts on Jesus, on his cross, on his empty tomb, and ask God to fill you with a deep awareness of his unbreakable love.What glorious words, as Paul sums up all he has taught us so far! Read through the passage again (this time from verse 28) and notice what God has done for and given to us. This is the solid ground on which we stand. All this is ours already, though we do not yet have it in full: we are the inbetweeners.
In verse 18 Paul said that the troubles of this life ‘are not worth comparing’ with God’s glory. They may appear strong, but God is stronger. Even at their worst, they cannot separate us from God’s love in Christ (vs 35,39). Even in our darkest moments God is working for our ‘good’ (v 28). Nothing – nothing – even our own weakness, can frustrate his will for us: that we might be ‘conformed to the image of his Son … the firstborn among many brothers and sisters’ (v 29). That’s us!
This does not minimize suffering, but maximizes the glory, love, and power of God: nothing can separate us from God’s love; nothing can stop his will for us and his work in our lives. Nothing.
Apply
We live in the tension between what we already and do not yet have in Christ. Struggles are unavoidable. But God has the last word. Declare verses 37 to 39 over a situation with which you – or someone close to you – is struggling.
Closing prayer
Mighty God, I rest in Your lordship over all things. Sometimes life seems so confusing, but I rest assured that nothing will ever separate me from Your love.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.