Loving God bless and protect the needs of this dear reader. I ask this in Christ Jesus' name, amen.
Dear friends, this comes a bit late and it comes from the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix as I await the plane that takes me home after a meeting of all the conferences' board of ordained ministry chairpersons. Great meeting if only for an overnight, 24 hour meeting. But here is today's reading.
Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." 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, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is perhaps no greater passage on the strength and presence and workings of God's Holy Spirit as this one. We have to admit that we are weak. And sometimes that weakness comes through when we feel so weak that we can no longer pray. It comes to many of us when we are hurting or beat down so badly that we have no other option but to look upward towards God. And Paul says it is at exactly then even if we can only sigh, that God's Spirit "intercedes" for us. God knows what is behind those sighs that come out of our soul. A dear woman in a previous church lost her daughter to cancer. It was the most agonizing thing she or any of us could ever dread to experience. After weeping and hurting and praying and mourning, she reached that point and it alarmed her. She said to me, "Pastor, I can no longer pray..." I rememberd this verse and told her she had never stopped praying for her child; it was just that she stopped using words and began using the Holy Spirit to interpret the sighs to God as her prayer.
Paul further says that "all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." That is to say that both good and bad, everything, all things, work for good if we love God and who know of our relationship with God. Not all things are pleasant or good, but because of our relationship with God, we're going to understand more deeply and be able to bless others more deeply because of that. Paul reminds us of what God suffered in letting His Son experience what He did on our behalf. Then the awesome declaration, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Throughout our lives, if we love God and enjoy that relationship with God, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. Then the list! Who or what could possibly separate us from God? Death? No! Life? Even Angels? How about Presidents (okay, Paul says rulers) No again! What about things we're experiencing or fear that may come? No! What about powers? No! What about height or depth? No! "Nothing in creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
PRAYER: Awesome, Loving Father, what a promise and what a blessing is ours. My prayer is that You would be with me as I face what I face. Let me be the person You would have me be even in the midst of this which I am experiencing. Let me be faithful, let me be more than a conqueror, let me be one who gives witness and praise to You in all things. I ask all this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
