Eternal Love

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

ETERNAL LOVE

Rom 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.

NIV

There is no one that can be against us, and nothing can cause us to be destroyed because God is for us. How can anyone or anything go up against God and win? We are soundly affixed in the love of God. There is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from his love. And when we consider what it means to be firmly in His love, it means everything. He gave us the most excellent demonstration of his love for us through sending his only begotten Son to die on the cross, shedding his blood so that we would have complete, once and for all, the forgiveness of our sins. Then, he raised him from the dead and Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and is forever making intercession for us. We can just imagine that scene where Jesus continually shows the Father his nail-scared hands and the wound in his side where his blood was shed, telling the Father that all that was done in accordance with his love for the world. But the Father already loved us even before the foundation of the world. His love has been and will continue to be eternal. Even in our darkest times when we are either sick or are being disobedience in some way, not only some sin, but not doing that which we have been called to do, or doing that which we have been not called to do, that is acting on our own volition without consulting the Spirit, he still loves us. Jesus still died for us and by believing in the blood of Jesus, all our sins are forgiven and we have to right to be called children of God. Yes, there might be some disasters that happen in our lives. Storms can destroy our homes, and floods can ruin all we own. Hardship can come our way in a variety of ways, but that does not influence the fact that God loves us, and so then we should always be looking to the love of God rather than the things of this world. Things can temporarily disturb our daily routines, but nothing can disturb the love of God. There may be times when our love for him may falter at times because of some hardship we are experiencing and our focus on the hardship deflects our love for God. But no matter what God is always there loving us with all his love, and his focus is always on us.