Pray:
Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Romans 8:31-39,
“31 What, then, Shall we say in response to this? 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 is He that condemns? 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.’ 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, 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.”
Understand:
Previously, I’ve mentioned that Romans chapter 8 begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation. Paul knew this reality to be true—he was convinced, completely certain, and believed firmly in the truth of the Gospel of Jesus.
Paul’s life was an utter reversal—he went from killing Christ followers to being one who would fully embrace the gospel message. You don’t have a dramatic shift like this unless you know something to be true. His confidence in the gospel was so firm that he gave his life for it.
Paul’s writings gave assurance to the believer that once you had been justified by Christ, there was nothing in all of the universe that would ever be able to change that reality—nothing.
In these last two verses, Paul racks his brain to come up with anything that might be able to separate us from the love of Jesus, but he can’t. That in itself is an astounding thought!
Apply:
We can mentally know there is no separation from Christ, but when it comes to living it out, we can tend to take a different trek. In fact, you may have had some experiences that lead you to doubt what Paul said in these verses. What are some of those doubts? Now think about the passage, about what Terry said on Sunday, and about what you’ve read this week in the devotionals. With all that in mind, why are your doubts not true?
*From what you have just read and considered, what is a personal implication/application for your life today?
Live:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the Gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live out this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the Good News today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.
Inspiration and insight for the devotionals came from the following books: Reading Romans with John Stott; The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World (The Bible Speaks Today Series), Stott, John; Romans (The NIV Application Commentary Book 6) Moo, Douglas J.; Encountering the Book of Romans: A Theological Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies) Moo, Douglas J.; Believers Bible Commentary; The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, with the New International Version, Romans through Galatians; NIV Application Study Bible. The Cambridge Bible Commentary, Romans, Best, Ernest.