Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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. - Romans 8:35-39Sometimes death threatens to separate us from the love of God. Our spouse dies suddenly, killed instantly in an accident. Sometimes our baby dies stillborn, and we hold him in our arms, lifeless. Sometimes our babies don't even make it far enough for us to hold them. Disease ravages our best friend's body, his lungs and heart giving way long before they should have. Yes, death threatens to separate us.
Sometimes demons threaten to separate us from the love of God. Oppression takes over, our thoughts don't become our own, and a war wages in the heavenlies against our very existence. Yes, demons threaten to separate us.
Sometimes the present threatens to separate us from the love of God. Broken hearts, broken engagements, pink slips, collections notices, unexpected diagnoses, injustices, bills too high and income too low. Yes, the present threatens to separate us.
Sometimes the future threatens to separate us from the love of God. A cascade of what ifs chase us, a cloud of uncertainty lingers, and the path marked before us seems dim. Yes, the future threatens to separate us.
The powers, the heights, the depths - they all threaten to separate us.
But life? Why would life threaten to separate us? This thing that is to represent vitality and vibrancy and fullness? How would life threaten to separate us from the love of God?
Death, I get. Demons, I get. The present, the future, the past, the depths, the heights, the powers, I get. (I'm honestly not sure where the angels fit in all this.)
But life?
Yes, indeed, life can threaten to separate us from the love of God. Life on this dusty planet most certainly threatens to separate us from the love of God. The dysfunction, the tragedy, the brokenness - it all threatens to separate. We struggle to hold onto our hope when we look around at our circumstances, and we begin to buckle under the weight of all that seems to have gone so terribly, terribly awry. Our hearts cry, Jesus, just come back and make it all better. We find our breaths growing shallow, the panic setting in, the grief overwhelming us because it's just all so broken. Because it all just feels so hopeless. For some, life can feel like a rollercoaster ride gone horribly wrong, like dysfunction is the standard mode of operation, and there seems to be no way of escape.
The devil plays dirty. He knows that threats alone are enough to sink you and me. The realities don't even have to occur (although sometimes the threats do become realities), he just has to threaten all the live long day. And then we feel like God's love is far from us, and we grope in the dark, looking for his hand, wondering where he has gone.
But the character of God and the promises of his Word are enough to raise you and me. They are the life raft to which we must cling. It's the only thing that can silence the threats, drown out the ruckus and racket competing for our hearts and minds. And just like Paul, the author of Romans, somewhere along the way, we have to become convinced. "For I am convinced that [nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Convinced.
"That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day," Paul goes on to say in 2 Timothy 1:12.
Are you convinced that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ? Are you convinced death won't separate you? Are you convinced divorce won't separate you? Are you convinced conflict and persecution won't separate you? Are you convinced assault and abuse won't separate you? Are you convinced a past you think is so very dark and so very deep won't separate you? Are you convinced your loved one's suicide won't separate you? Are you convinced prison bars won't separate you?
Are you convinced God is able?
Our answer to that question will determine the trajectory of our responses when life threatens to separate us from the love of God. Because we will either allow our circumstances to color the truth, or we will allow the truth to color our circumstances. One will most certainly inform the other, and you have a choice as to which direction that river flows. If we look first to our circumstances to dictate the truth and to define the character of God, then we will wind up bitter, disappointed, and disillusioned at every turn. Without fail. And we'll wind up with a highly distorted view of God. If your starting point is anything other than the character and truth of God, you will wind up with the wrong answer and wrong perspective. We will spend more time looking out and around us instead of looking up and beyond.
However, if we first start with the character of God and allow that to dictate the truth and define our circumstances, then we will stand rooted and established, unmoved and unshaken by the life that threatens to separate us. Jesus warned us these hardships of life would come. We shouldn't be surprised by them. But he also told us to take heart, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
We are more than conquerors because he has already conquered. He's conquered death, demons, powers, past, present, future and everything else in between.
Take heart, friend, when life threatens to separate, and remember it's just that - a threat.
It's no match for the truth. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 139:7-12
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