Sunday, May 20, 2007

may I rise, my Lord

My Utmost for His Highest
"Out Of The Wreck I Rise"

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
Romans 8:35

God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says - "I will be with him in trouble." It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man's life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are "more than conquerors in all these things." Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in. I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.

"Shall tribulation…?" Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may - exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.

"Shall anguish…?" - can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

"Shall famine…?" - can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it - the love of God in Christ Jesus. "Out of the wreck I rise" every time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Now I know that the Lord saves his annointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots & some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees & fall, but we rise up and stand firm." Psalm 20: 6-8
Praying for you as you rise up. You are inspiring.

Sherri said...

Love that passage. Thanks for your insights. We are praying for you!