Last Friday morning, Karen and I saw something that we hadn’t seen for a long time: a rainbow in the eastern sky. This reminded us that God is in control of all that happens and that He loves us with a love that is everlasting.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read: “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 delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 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. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
‘For your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39).”
In the Jeremiah Study Bible, the following is shared: “According to Leon Morris, when Paul quotes from Psalm 44:22, his words ‘bring out the truth that for God’s people there is a real risk and a call for real devotion. Christians might be tempted to think that because the love of Christ is so real and so unshakable they need not fear that they will run into trouble. Scripture shows that, while the love is sure, so are troubles … Paul says … ‘We are being killed all day long.’ It is real and not imaginary peril that Christians face.”
You are probably familiar with the company that produces running shoes called Nike. Did you know that the word “Nike” is a Greek word that means to overcome? In his Study Bible, Dr. David Jeremiah writes: “More than conquerors is translated from the Greek hupernikomen. Huper means ‘over and above.’ Together they mean over and above victory. Believers are super-conquerors!”
May we determine to walk by faith in the Lord, resting in His promise to never leave us or forsake us.
Steve