Day 137: God is Fighting for You

Romans 8; 1 Samuel 17:1-54; Psalm 62

If you have accepted Jesus' gift, then you are a child of God and free from the power of sin.  Because of that, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you which will help you to live according to the Lord's desires.  However, because we are human, we will daily have to fight against OUR desires and for the HOLY SPIRIT'S desires.  One leads to death and the other to "life and peace."  I'm sure it is pretty easy to figure out which is which.  That's one of those things that, while I don't totally understand how or why it works, it isn't a mystery of how to receive it.  How do you get peace?  Accept and follow Jesus.  How to do you get life?  Accept and follow Jesus.  You don't even have to memorize the hundreds of rules in the Old Testament or even the 10 commandments (though the latter would be helpful sometimes).  If you have accepted Jesus' gift, then you are a child of God and have the Holy Spirit in you that wants to teach you and lead you to good things.  Don't ignore God's gift!

Why would God MAKE the world confused?  Basically, why would he MAKE everyone with a burning hole in their soul?  Because he wants people to come to him so that he can give them life.  He can't make someone love him, so instead he made them with a need and desire for deep love and life that can only be filled by him.

"But now we groan silently, while we wait for od to show that we are his children." What does that mean?  Well, I think what it is saying is that we have to live on this earth with faith in something that can't be seen with physical eyes while the world asks and expects some physical sign of the Almighty and of Jesus. And that sometimes stinks.  We "groan" because we struggle against rejection, hatred, selfishness, cancer, divorce, lay-offs, poverty, disease, and war.  We pray to a God we can't see with our physical eyes, and we wish and pray that God would reveal himself so that we can be encouraged. We have to wait until Jesus returns (and I just had a flashback of the Left Behind books--awesome stuff) before we can be "proven right," so to speak.  There's a good chance it won't happen in our lifetime either, so that's obviously an issue as well.  But, Paul goes on to say that we have hope and hope is all we need.

I just have to include these quotations.  They are rockin':

"If GOD is on OUR SIDE, can anyone be against us?  God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us.  If God did this, won't he freely give us EVERYTHING else?  If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them?  Or can anyone condemn them?  No indeed!  Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God's right side, speaking to him FOR US.  Can ANYTHING separate us from the love of Christ?  Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger or death?....In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us....NOTHING in all creation can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!"

And they keep going in all their fabulousness.  There is such hope and joy and promise in those words!!! I'm so excited!

Does fear every paralyze you? I know it does me from time to time.  David believed in the power of God when no one else would.  He took just himself and his skills and overcame a mighty giant.  Whatever battle we face in this life, the God that helped David is still here, and will help us.  The key is believing that it is possible.  It is awesome that the psalm says that "God alone is the mighty rock"--is that the rock that David slain Goliath with?  Hm?  I pray that you would be encouraged today by these words of Paul and the story of David.  God is with you and he's fighting for you.