Sue With Deer

Sue With Deer
"As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants after You."

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Romans 8 - God's Intent

Have you ever purchased a book and peeked at the end of it to see if it turns out good?

We've all read the Book of Revelation and see that it turns out perfectly good!
In Romans 8, there are some powerful questions at the end of it that I would like to list.  Those questions in themselves give us HUGE clues as to the finality and surety Paul has laid out for us in this great letter to the Romans.
Here they are:
1)            What shall we say to all this?  (Verse 31)
2)            Who shall bring a charge to God's elect? (Verse 33)
3)            Who is there to condemn us?  (Verse 34)
4)            Who shall ever separate us from the love of God?  (Verse 35)
The answers are of course in the same passage from verses 31 to 38.  And Paul makes a powerful statement when he writes:
"For I am persuaded beyond doubt that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in ALL creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
God truly means for us to base our faith and trust in His Word completely and especially in the work of Christ - for it applies to everyone who believes.
It is not impossible for us to understand or like Paul, to be fully persuaded beyond doubt.  For we have God's Holy Spirit dwelling inside our hearts to enable us to apprehend not only the Truth, but the love of God.
So for today, I write this beautiful prayer Paul prayed but penned for us as well in Ephesians 3:
"...I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for Whom every family in heaven and in earth is named.  May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened with might in the inner man by the Holy Spirit dwelling in your innermost being.  May Christ through YOUR faith dwell (settle down, abide) in your hearts!  May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love.  That you may have power to be strong to apprehend and grasp with ALL the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of it: That you may come to know practically through experience for yourselves the love of Christ which surpasses mere knowledge (without experience): that you may be filled through all your being unto ALL the fullness of God - may have rich measure of His Divine Presence and become a body filled and flooded with God Himself."
There is no human invention, no human idea, no class on earth, no created thing that can touch that prayer and God's granting it.  For God gives it from Himself and to all who believe and receive.  Praise God, we cannot earn it, merit it, scheme for God's love and His Son - He gives and gives and gives through simple faith and our receiving.
"Thank you, God - thank you, over and over again for Jesus Christ and the love you have for us - daily and forever.  Open our eyes afresh.  Open our hearts wide to RECEIVE the abundance of grace, love, power, wisdom - all that Christ is to us, for us, in us, and through us.  In Jesus name.  Amen!"
It's not until we know, really know that we can be the best service to others.  For then it will never be out of our own need to be anything or for gain, but out of His fullness that we give.
Sue Gaither

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