The Conquerors of God in Christ Jesus!

‘What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 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. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.’ – Romans 8:31-39 NIV

All of us need to know or remind ourselves that God is with us all times, even though we may not realise it. Realising that God is currently working within us, especially for those of us who love Him (Romans 8:28), is not always easy, especially when we sin or terrible things happen. I figured this out on this morning because I think I sinned this morning. To be more specific, I just slept or took a nap instead of writing devotionals for others. Of course, it is not sin if I feel very tired from the moment I wake up, but I felt no tiredness when I woke up on this morning. Therefore, I drank some water and washed my face before doing devotionals. However, I just took a nap again for a couple of hours after I washed my face and chose my devotional topic for today, due to the fact that washing my face makes me tired. I knew that I had to persevere my tiredness, especially after washing my face, because I think that tiredness is only for temporary but I just slept, thinking that I would have no energy to write devotionals later on. Thus, for this reason, I guess I need to work on perseverance and getting rid of my worries while I am concentrating that God is our Creator (Psalm 46:10). Hebrews 10:36-39 encourages me on this situation, even though the context of perseverance is very different when it is compared to mine.  Furthermore, when I was taking a nap, my mind was filled with devotional thoughts on today’s devotional topic, so I guess the grace of God has been within me, even though I have sinned (Romans 5:20-21). This does not mean that we can purposely sin so that the grace might increase (Romans 6).

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

In fact, Matthew 1:23 states, ‘“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).’ This Scripture means that Jesus Christ is the way to receive the presence of God in our lives. In addition to this, Jesus proclaims, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7) Not only we can feel that God is with us right now when God has provided us things through Jesus (Romans 8:32), we would be certain that God is with us at the end of the age if we have followed Him through faith until the end of the age. This is because we have eternal life through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23; John 11:25-26). Furthermore, we know that Jesus Christ is living within us because of the Spirit of God (Romans 8:1-4). God has poured His Spirit into us so that His Spirit would be able to be an advocate, a friend, a counselor, and a guardian as we walk with God through Jesus Christ until the end of the age (John 14:15-27). I know that the Spirit of God is currently working within me, especially when I write devotionals, as the Spirit has been empowering me to write devotionals for the sake of others (Acts 1:8). In other times, I know that the Spirit is with me as I, sometimes, hear the voice of God. Hence, we must fully open the door of our hearts to let Jesus fully come in as the Spirit of God (Revelation 3:20).

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:19-21)

Although persecutions, other trials, and temptations may influence and persuade us to go astray from Jesus Christ, the love of God cannot be separated from us easily if we hold the love of God firmly, of course (Romans 8:37-39). In fact, these troubles may come to us in different stages of life because God wants us to test our faith in Jesus Christ, so James 1:2-4 calls us to count them as joy of our lives. 1 Peter 1:7 states, “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Hence, we have to make sure that the love of God is firmly secure within us all the time (Psalm 136). I love God and His Word so much that when I am writing devotionals, I often do not want to stop to do other priorities that I have to do except eating food and checking notifications from my iPad. In addition to this, I feel like that I am stopping the work of the Spirit of God within me as I stop writing devotionals.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)