Never Alone - Never Separated

Romans 8:35-39

I think one of the greatest revelations for Christians is recognizing that you’re not alone.  Despite the craziness of this world, God is always with you and He’s always got your back.  Knowing you’ve got someone in your corner can be life-changing.

Now that doesn’t mean once we say “Yes” to God that we’ll never go through hardship or pain again, but we can stand firm in the knowledge that nothing will be able to separate us from His love.  Will our life feel crappy sometimes – no doubt!  Will the Enemy try to convince us we’ve been abandoned – no doubt!  Will God be with us through it all – no doubt!

But here’s where it gets tricky… when we make it through the tough times, we tend to think it’s because we’re tough.  That our strength is our doing and our perseverance is what made the difference.  That because we tried hard enough or had enough willpower, our enemies never stood a chance.

Verse 37 states, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” The key is – THROUGH HIM who loved us.  It’s because of Him we made it through.  It’s HIS strength we rely on.  Acknowledging this means surrendering control and sinful humans don’t like to do that.  But when we do, whether we’ve been a follower for 60 seconds or 60 years, it brings a freedom like no other.

So, when you feel like you’re fighting for your life, remember - you’re not alone.  God is stuck to you like superglue and nothing can separate you from His love.  May you rest in this freedom today and every day forward.

Forsaken for us

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” – which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Matthew 27:46

Forsaken.  It means to be departed from … left behind … left alone … completely abandoned.

I shudder at the thought of an existence with no God.  Even amid the most horrible atrocities of this age, God is still present.  Can we even begin to imagine his absence?  We cannot.

So we hear Jesus’ cry and ask, Why did he suffer abandonment by his Father?

Simply this: so we wouldn’t have to.

When God moved Adam into Eden, he warned him not to “eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  Everything God created was good; in its entirety, his creation was very good.  That’s what he wanted for us.  And he warned Adam that, were he to pursue knowing both good and evil, he would die.  He would be separated from God.  As we painfully know, that became his lot and ours.

But God’s heart is not for separation; his passion is for life and re-birth – his Spirit living in us, and us reunited with him.  On the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus asked his Father to remove the chasm between us and him, and to restore the oneness we once had.  For those who would believe, he prayed, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me” (John 17:21-23).

Did you catch that?  As the Father indwells the Son, so the Son indwells those who entrust their lives to him.  Jesus doesn’t separate us from him; he reunites us with him.  He does not condemn a good people; he saves a sinful people.  We are separated no more!

And we carry with us this message of peace.  The price has been paid for all.  Ours is simply to believe.  And rejoice!

[Messianic in nature, Psalm 22 is quoted in the New Testament more than any other Psalm.  Jesus himself spoke from it as he suffered separation for us.  Click here to read Psalm 22.]