Daily Devotion - October 11, 2023

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Rom. 8:35-37)

Have you ever wondered if life’s trials prove that God has stopped caring for you? Such natural questioning is why the Apostle Paul assures us that we are more than conquerors of life’s trials through him who loves us!  

Paul was trying to make it clear that Jesus’ love for us is infinitely greater than all our circumstances or sins. The challenges of past, present, and future do not indicate that God is gone, nor do our responses to them indicate that his love is. 

What assures us of God’s inseparable love? First, it was established by his grace, not by how good we or our circumstances were. 

Second, God is everywhere. He is always near. He remains Immanuel (“God with us”) even when the earth is shaking. No trial or failure can distance us from him.

Third, even when trials expose our weakness, God sticks close to provide a remedy. Greater is he that is in you, than any power in this world (1 Jn 4:4).  As a consequence, we are more than conquerors of fear, doubt, and disobedience through Christ’s power. 

The grace of God isn’t a pass on obedience; it is the power for obedience. We are no longer slaves to sin or prisoners of fear (Rom. 6:6,14). Thus, we conquer the doubts, fears, and weaknesses that trials lay bare with the grace of a loving Lord.

We conquer by believing we have Christ’s pardon for us, Christ’s presence with us, Christ’s power in us, and Christ’s promises forever. 

God has made us able to stand and will stand with us – nothing can separate us from his love. We are more than conquerors because we are his.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for being the power of my power and providing it through a love that will not let me go. Give me faith in the grace that is greater than sin or fear so that I will stand against all that you will conquer.