Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died- more than that, who was raised to life- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (NIV)

“While God is for us, and we keep to his holy love, we may with a holy boldness defy all the powers of darkness. Let Satan do his worst, he is chained; let the world do its worst, it is conquered: principalities and powers are spoiled and disarmed, and triumphed over, in the cross of Christ. Who then dares fight against us, while God himself is fighting for us?”

- Matthew Henry

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Okay, I cannot possibly say it any better!

The End.

Short devo today, sorry!  

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I don’t know about you, but I have been caught cowering at the thought of Satan, shaking at what the world throws at me. I don’t often live in the love or full power of the God of the universe!

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Why not? Why do I so often doubt?

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The trouble is that the hardships are so hard; the dangers, so real and in my face; harsh words are so loud and play themselves over and over in my mind. And Jesus? Well, to be honest, seems so far away. He tells me he’s with me, and I believe that! But sometimes it feels like he is a spectator. He weeps and cheers, watches and listens, but where is the power? Why doesn’t he do something!?

The truth is that most of the time, I don’t need rescue. I need molding, shaping, and refining.  The trials I’m forced to play participant in are the things he’s using to transform me into his image – not so effective if he just turns around and rescues me out of them, eh? The pain I’m feeling, the struggle to choose the holy from the profane, they’re not weapons but tools at work in the loving hands of Jesus to work in my very soul and bring about change that is pleasing in the eyes of my Maker.  

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Do something, Jesus.

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Please, believe me when I say, I don’t make these statements lightly. I sometimes don’t want molding and shaping! I want fixes and answers. I want ease! Pain? No, thank you! But hard things are a big part of my life, have been for quite some time, and will remain until the end. There are things that are well within my control and things that only God can do: squelching pride, submitting, health issues, parenting, anger, running to old destructive habits, feeling hopeless.  

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Do something, Jesus.

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And, in reality, outside of how things seem or how I may feel, the truth is he did do something!

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He did everything.

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He willingly died so that I can have the power to change!

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If I have suffered, he has suffered more. If I have been tempted, he was tempted more. If I have been broken, he has been broken more. Broken for me.

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While this brokenness of his and the resulting power in my life because of the resurrection and the coming of the Spirit may not change my immediate circumstances, it gives me the power to choose how I’m going to respond. Will I operate in the power and goodness of Jesus’ love or choose the old way? Will I hunker down with my buddy, fear, and wait until he relents, or will I rise up from the grave and lay claim to the power and self-control that the Spirit brings?

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His brokenness ultimately changes everything – in this life and the next! After the struggle, never-ending refining, failures, and temptation after temptation, we will be with him in a place with no sorrow or tears. We will worship together the One who not only did something, but who gives us the power to do something, as well.

My Rescuer, thank you for doing absolutely everything for me and the whole world! Thank you for the trials, refining, and temptations. Not because they feel good, but for what they produce in me. Help me to see these things through your eyes, as tools that shape and form me into the image of your perfect Son. Help me to trust you in these things and willingly transform into the person you need to do your work. I submit to your plan, knowing you are the one who is fighting and enabling it all.