Power to Live -- Right Now

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Power to Live — Right Now

Ever feel powerless in your life? Does it ever seem that circumstances are just stacked too high against you? And when you call out to God nothing seems to happen?

Eye witnesses say that Jesus Himself cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet he was not rescued from the cross. He died there, was buried in a borrowed tomb until better arrangements could be made, and that was the end of God’s Messiah.

Or so some thought. And it was not just Jesus’ enemies who believed he was forsaken by God. Even his own disciples had lost all hope. They were crushed under the loss, the death of Jesus Christ at the hands of those who rejected the Gospel.

It’s all an illusion, though. No one on the face of the whole earth is ever separated from the power of God. Not even those who never heard of God. And especially those who know God through faith in Jesus Christ cannot be robbed of God’s power -- not even in death. Wicked men may kill the body, but they cannot rob a human soul of God’s power and help. Spiritual forces of evil may attack and destroy one’s possessions, one’s health, and even one’s hopes. But they cannot remove anyone from God’s power or ability to protect.

Remember Job, who lost everything? Remember the 3 Hebrew children who were tied with ropes and then thrown alive into a blazing furnace? Remember Jesus who suffered horribly and then died on a Roman cross while being mocked by his enemies?

In the case of Job, God vindicated him, restoring all his possessions and his station in life. In the case of those three Hebrews, they were not burned at all in that furnace, but were able to walk out on their own two feet, even though the men who threw them in were killed by the heat. And as for Jesus, he did die. In fact, the Bible says that he dismissed his spirit, after saying, “It’s finished.” And then he descended into hell, where he preached to spirits imprisoned, and then, on the third day, he returned to his body and walked alive out of the tomb.

No matter the circumstances, God is with us. Even Samson of old, who brought all of his troubles on himself, was able to call on God and to receive the strength (the power of God) he needed to defeat his enemies, delivering Israel from years of oppressive servitude.

Who, then, or what can separate us from God’s power and help?

That’s a question the apostle Paul asks in a letter to the Roman believers in the first century. Here’s the question in full:

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 8:35 thru 39, NKJB)

Most Christians have read or at least heard this passage before. And most of us will agree that it is a true statement: Nothing can separate us from God’s love. But we tend to miss the point. If nothing can truly rob us of God’s love for us, then how do we ever allow ourselves to think that we face any crises or circumstance without God’s power and help?

If we cannot be pulled out away from God’s love, then why are we willing to believe that we can find ourselves outside of God’s power and help? We seem to forget that the devil is a liar, and that he always lies about God’s goodness and ability (or willingness) to help us.

God never forsakes his own. He does allow things to happen in our lives. But we need to remember that He is the one who works in all circumstances for our good. For our good, not just for his own pleasure or amusement. God uses the very circumstances of life to teach and help us, to prepare us, to enable us to leap higher than we ever thought we could leap. If there were no challenges, no tests, no needs, then how would we ever push forward, how would we grow stronger, how would we develop inside and out?

One does not become a runner by lying in bed. One does not become a champion by avoiding the training or the match. One does not master a skill at anything by sitting around doing nothing. The challenges of life are not given us by God to stop us but to prepare us, train us, strengthen us, and to toughen our resolve.

Every infant stumbles as it struggles against gravity to stand and then walk. And falling does not prevent the same child from later running all over the house and yard. The falling may frighten the child at first. But it cannot prevent any of us from becoming what we really are inside: people who walk and run and jump and play. Even crippling diseases and injuries that rob us of our natural legs often fail to keep us down.

So it should be with every child of God. There is no being or circumstance that can pull us away from God’s love in Christ Jesus. And that means that no being or circumstance exists that can separate us from God’s power. We have the power of God to do whatever needs to be done in our lives. He loves us. He is with us. He is for us.

In the same section of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes: “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.” (Romans 8:31-34, NKJB)

This passage makes clear that God is for us, and that no one can effectively oppose us. God the Father gave up his own Son for us. Christ died for us and also rose again, and now makes intercessions on our behalf at the very throne of God. There is no room for anyone to get between us and God.

What Jesus did on the cross nearly two thousand years ago took our sin away. Sin, therefore, no longer remains a separating wall between us and God. God was in Christ, the Bible says, reconciling the world to himself. We can now call on God and know that he will hear us. If we have trusted in his son, we know that all our sins have been removed, and that we are now God’s own children.

We have the power we need, in Christ, to accomplish whatever needs to be done. Not only on some spiritual level (although that is where it all begins) but on every level. We can get done in our lives what needs to be done. We can accomplish all that we need to do. Never allow yourself to doubt that.

As the Bible says, If God is for us, who can be against us? In all the circumstances of life 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.

Amen and amen.

Jim

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This page last edited 01/13/08

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