More Than Conquerors

Sorry for dropping the ball on posting this week!  We’ve had a few intense days of the kids, Jim and I all taking turns being sick, and now with pre-Christmas activities upon us, I’m stretched pretty thin!  Tonight, as I was looking at my sweet Becky lying on the couch, pale and flushed all at the same time, I felt so overwhelmed with worry.  I worried because I didn’t know whether I should make a doctor’s appointment for her or whether this was just a virus we needed to ride out (so many days I wish I had a medical degree so I could diagnose my family myself without having to haul us to the doctor’s office!).  I worried because I didn’t want the illness to pass to the other kids, who were all still recovering from the last (albeit mild) illness.  I worried because we have so many wonderful Christmas traditions in the next few days and I didn’t know how many we’d be healthy enough to do.  I hated for the kids’ Christmas memories for this year to be marred by illness.  And we have a loved one who is in the hospital and so there’s always worry related to that.  But God quieted my spirit and reminded me that my worries were indicative of a lack of trust in His timing and His control.  He reminded me that there are so many people out there with problems far deeper and more painful than I can imagine.  Even tonight we received a call from a DCF worker asking if we could take an emergency placement of a homeless teenager (we declined for a variety of reasons, but it was heartbreaking to think of the need out there).  How can I get wrapped up in worry, when my family is safe and warm and (almost entirely) healthy?  And even if we weren’t…even if we had just buried a child like our dear relatives had to do this week…we are loved by a good and faithful God who has secured our eternal salvation, so that no matter what happens, we can rest in Him.  When I went to the funeral on Wednesday, the preacher read a passage that had been underlined in the young woman’s Bible before she passed away.  No doubt she was very familiar with worry, as she had struggled with a devastating illness her entire life.  But she clung to this verse, as each Christian has the privilege of doing: “ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).  NOTHING – not illness in any form, not trouble in any form, not danger in any form – can hinder our refuge in God when we trust in His Son.  We can have perfect peace in Him.

When I was looking up the verse tonight to include in this blog post, my eyes scanned the prior verses in the chapter, and I was struck by the peace that each of these God-breathed words offers to those who love Him. This time of year can bring with it so much worry.  But it doesn’t need to.  Please, read these words.  Do they apply to you?  Have you been justified?  Do you have a hope for eternity?  Have you trusted in the One who “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all”? 

Romans 8:18, 28-37:

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  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 among many brothers.  What then shall we say 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 with him graciously give us all things?  Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

1 comment to More Than Conquerors

  • Craii]g Cole

    “For I am convinced …”, brings back fond memories of Jamie Swan and our family trip to Sun River.
    Dad

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