God's Love

"Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [36] As it is written:  "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."  [37] Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. [38] For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, [39] nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 8:33-39

How easy it is to pass quickly over well-known passages of scripture!  We are always the loser when we fall into this snare, and no one is exempt.  Sometimes we are so sure of the meaning of a scripture that our mind returns to old programming and reads our assumptions into the scripture.  May God cure us of this malady!

As I read this verse during my devotions a couple days ago, something stood out which never had before.  Look carefully at verse 38.  Paul was persuaded nothing could possibly separate us from the love of God.  Nothing has the ability to overcome the power of God's love and alienate us from it.  Because he says "...neither death nor life" I always focused on the fact a Christian's physical death cannot separate him from God's love.  But what about life?  Can life separate us from God?  If I were to count the ways, this post would never be finished!  His love is never abated towards us, but our love toward Him can be diluted by desire for earthly things.

God has given us opportunities for fun, relaxation, entertainment, hobbies, work, and all manner of things on earth for us to enjoy.  But we can easily be tweaked out of balance by the abundance of ways we can spend our time and neglect looking to God who has made all things possible.  Your schedule reflects your priorities.  Your priorities are not what you say they are, but what your decisions and lifestyle reveal.  It is ironic that the very life God has given us can make us so busy that we take for granted the love God has freely given.  Death cannot separate us from God's love, and neither can life.  Let us be sober and vigilant to not allow God's great gifts to avert our focus from the Source and Creator of All.  He has made all things for His glory and good pleasure.  Praise Him for your life, and may our lives be an outpouring of thanks unto Him!