God Is for Us
by John Sainsbury
Do you sometimes feel that things are getting on top of you and that whatever you try and do everything seems to be piling in on you? Life has those moments, doesn’t it? It really can feel like it`s all too much and everything is against us.
In the middle of quite a dense passage Paul asks five questions of his readers designed to help them have hope when otherwise they might be tempted to despair (Romans 8:31-36). He begins by asking who can be against us? And to be honest, lots of things can be against us.
Just the sheer struggle of keeping afloat financially can seem as if it’s against us. Prices are rising faster than incomes, taxes are either rising, or thresholds are on hold. Things breaking, that we hadn’t anticipated, mean extra expense that we hadn’t planned for.
Then of course health issues can feel as if things are against us. Even getting to see a medical practitioner can be tough, let alone dealing with any treatment prescribed. We can suffer relational breakdown when things balloon out of nowhere and former good relationships turn sour and former close friends feel more like people who are against us.
We know that we have an enemy who is certainly against us. And even society can feel antagonistic towards our faith in Christ. We could summarise those things that are against us as the world, the flesh, and the devil. And each of these can seem overwhelming. However, before Paul asks who can be against us, he details one vital and situation changing reality. If God is for you… (Romans 8:31).
In other words, yes, in life we will experience many things being against us, but we would do well to bear in mind one key reality that keeps all that in perspective: God is for us! That’s the position the Christian sits in. The maker of heaven and earth, the very one who created our lives and redeemed them in Christ Jesus, is FOR YOU!
So, whatever comes against us, the world, the flesh, or the devil it cannot compete with the one who is for us. Or as Paul goes on to say, `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 8:38-39).
This doesn’t mean that all our problems disappear; often far from it. But what it does mean is that God is with us in every situation. And because He is with us, that changes everything!
John Sainsbury and his wife Sue are part of the leadership team at Ellel Grange. John has served as a church leader for many years, most recently as Lead Pastor of the Garstang Free Methodist Church. He has a passion for seeing many brought into the fulness of life that following Christ brings.
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