Friday, October 17, 2014

Reforming (phase 1), The Principle of Freedom (step 3), session 3

We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. - Rom 8, 28

The reading for this session is passage that kept me alive for a time, Rom 8, 28-39. God used this scripture along with Ps 121 to provide a glimmer of hope in the midst of my darkest self-judgment and despair. It can be challenging to remember the truth of this verse when my attention is too focused on my challenges.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? - Rom 8, 32

Why do I keep insisting on which of his "all things" God should be giving me? I need to be content to wait in him in the midst of the dark night, trusting that he is providing for my every need.

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 thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Rom 8, 35-39

Even when I feel that part of me is dying, I must remember that God is all about resurrection and glorification. I must allow him to put to death those things in me to which I would cling as an empty substitute for receiving him in his fullness.

No comments:

Post a Comment