IS GOD FOR ME? “If God Is for Us”

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: IS GOD FOR ME? “If God Is for Us”

Romans 8:28-39
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Well, indeed, if God is for us, then it really wouldn’t matter who is against us, would it? I mean, who could be greater and more powerful than God? No one.

By definition, no one or no thing can be more powerful than God; otherwise, that person or thing would be God.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” But that question then raises another question, one that could be a little ominous, depending on the answer: Is God for us? How can we know whether he is or not? Is God for us? How can we be sure that he is?

well, I’m sure that God must be for some people. But how can I be sure he is for me? Because, I tell you, there are times when I begin to wonder if he really is. Things don’t look like God is for me a whole lot of the time. It sure would give me a lot more confidence, a lot more joy, if I could be certain that God is for me.

Are there things that could cause us to wonder whether or not God really loves us?

You bet there are.

The circumstances of our life don’t always look like an all-powerful God is taking good care of us. What are those circumstances that could cause us to feel like we’re being cut off from God’s love, that he doesn’t really love us anymore? In other words, what can separate us from God’s loveor at least, what can lead us to think we’re being separated from God’s love?

Paul lists some of them: “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” These are hardships, afflictions, sufferings, that can beset us in this life. Tribulation and distress: All the various troubles and pressures that weigh heavily upon us.

What are the troubles and pressures you face that may cause you to doubt God’s close and tender love?
Famine and nakedness: This is talking about economic adversity in the extreme--not having enough to eat, not having clothes to wear. Etc

Paul gives us the answer, and it is an emphatic “Yes!”:

“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.”

There is one, and only one way you can be absolutely sure that God really is for us in any and every circumstance. And that is, by looking at what God has done for us in Christ.
Christ Jesus himself is the most emphatic yes, the once-and-for-all yes, to that sometimes perplexing question, Is God for us?

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. . . .” This is Paul’s version of “For God so loved the world that he gave his one-and-only Son.”

Friends, God did not spare his own Son but indeed gave him up for us all on the cross. Remember how the Father said, both at Jesus’ baptism and at his transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son” And yet God’s love for us is so great, so deep, that he would yield up his own beloved Son to death on the cross, in order to save us unworthy sinners. Amazing!

“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?” Yes, if God did the one, he will surely do the other. God will give us all things beneficial to our salvation--indeed, he will make us inheritors of all his riches in glorybecause he has given Christ to be our Savior.
Do you doubt God’s love? Look to the cross of Christ, and that will give you the answer.

LET US PRAY
FATHER IN JESUS NAME, DON'T LET YOUR PRESENCE DEPART FROM ME FOREVER IN JESUS NAME,

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Good morning friends