“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.’ ” (Romans 8:35-37)
Greeting cards and love songs have sucked all of the meaning out of words like “love” and “forever.” We toss them around too easily and forget what they really mean. No matter how romantically it is delivered, very few of us really believe the phrase, “I will never stop loving you.”
Paul wasn’t being romantic. He wasn’t writing a pop hit or a Valentine’s Day card from Jesus. He was stating cold, hard fact: Jesus will not ever – no never – stop loving anyone who is in Christ, a Jesus-follower, a Christian.
The promise wasn’t that nothing bad would ever happen. Just the opposite: Terrible things will happen in this life. Death. Torture. Disease. Hunger. No, the promise was that there is power – eternal, life-giving power to keep trusting God – that comes with the endless, unconditional, superglue love of Christ.
No matter how bad it gets, his love will give you the power to keep hoping, to keep believing and waiting and living for the Day.
Think: What’s the value of being loved by the Son of God forever? Why does it matter?
Pray: Thank God that nothing will ever separate you from the love of Christ. Thank him that you will be “more than a conquerer” through the One who loves you.
Do: Look up the word “conquer” in a dictionary and write down one of the definitions. Think about what it means to be more than a conqueror in terrible times.