Let Love Lead
… In Our Walk with God – Part VII
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:31-39
Key Verse: Romans 8:38
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
Before we leave this study of how to let love lead in our walk with God, let us look at a couple of verses in today’s Scripture Reading:
Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. (Romans 8:33-34)
Who then condemns us as Christ-followers? No one — for Christ Jesus died for us and God raised Him to life for us. Jesus is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
The question “Who dares accuse us and who then will condemn us?” has within it something very important. We must include ourselves as part of the answer of “no one”.
We are often the ones who accuse and condemn ourselves. In this case, the old saying “our own worst enemy is ourselves” is too often true.
My friends, we should never condemn or shame ourselves. This is because “God Himself has given us right standing with Himself” and “[Jesus] is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”
God gives us this right standing with Him because Jesus died for us while we were yet sinner (Romans 5:8). Then why are we constantly condemning ourselves when we fail God?
Being in right standing with God doesn’t mean that it is okay to sin against Him. As the Apostle Paul wrote: “God forbid” (Romans 6:15). We should never give ourselves permission to sin, but we should give ourselves permission to accept God’s love and mercy when we do sin.
The Prophet Jeremiah wrote: “The Joy of the Lord is our strength” (Jeremiah 8:10). It is critical for us to walk in joy not condemnation.
I am never happy about sinning but when I do, I rejoice that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for me!
Our strength in the Lord depends on us trusting in the Word of God and knowing that nothing can separate us from God’s love. When the Word says that God works all things for our good, it means all things, so stop worrying.
Think about this. Since the Bible is true and Jesus secures all its promises to us, we should be the most joy filled people on earth. We are not going to be happy about everything, but we can have the joy of the Lord knowing that we are in His Hands!
Father, help me not allow the devil to accuse me or condemn me. With Your help I will walk in the joy of the Lord today. In Jesus’s Name, amen.