Believe. He Is Working It Out.

This morning I came across this reading of Romans 8 by John Piper. 

POWERFUL! 

I must admit that the beginning of this chapter might lead your heart down a path of judging yourself disqualified to the hope found in the words written long ago by Paul. The unseen hope of patiently overcoming all the heartaches and suffering we experience here on earth. 

The chapter begins with a truth - 

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." 

Ahh, yes I believe that:) 

And the following words bring more hope. 

2 For the law of the Spirit[a] of life in Christ Jesus has set you[b] free from the law of 

sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh,

 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, 

who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Then my heart fell when I heard  - "and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

Why do we always want to believe the worst about ourselves? Why do we blame ourselves for something we could have never done on our own. That is the perfected work of the enemies lies. We want to believe we will never measure up. There is some truth in that, but if we trace our finger back to the words written before we judged ourselves, we see the truth we missed that sets us all free. 

"God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do."

We could never overcome the law and please God because we are weakened by the flesh. The marriage of law and flesh was God's plan to begin with...He knew it would produce a frustration within us that would eventually bring us to truth. It is His mission to do for us what we cannot do on our own. Our flesh is earthly tent where our spirit from Heaven dwells until we the day we are set free to return Home. He knows our flesh isn't capable of pleasing Him without Him. So, He made it His responsibility to deal with the flesh by sending His son Jesus to do what the law could not do.. give us grace:) 

"He sent Jesus to save whom He foreknew."

He knew you before you came to live on this earth in a tent of flesh. He knew and knows your struggles. He predestined you to be conformed to the image of His son (the ultimate overcomer). And those He predestined He also called, and He justified and those He justified He also glorifies. 

29 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.[v] 

30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

We must return to this truth. He made the way, and He continues to make the way. He has given us His Spirit who lives in us and who pleases God for us and through us.
This is why we have hope. This is why we never give up. He started the good work long before you were ever here on earth and He promises to finish it .......  His responsibility...... Your responsibility ...... Begins with belief. 

When we believe, we open our heart to the unseen hope. This gives God just what He needs to be at work in our lives.

I love the ending of Romans 8- The Spirit of God, who is always interceding for us and fighting for us makes us righteous. Not us alone but us only by the Spirit of God who lives within us. 

Share His yoke and put your condemning one down. Grab hold of the hope that has invited us all partake of the Good story God is working out in all of our lives. 

Remember, Nothing can separate you from His love. 

I end this morning again with remembering His words to me at the beginning of this year... "You will judge the one who promises faithful".  I will judge Him faithful in the end because He cannot lie :) This I WILL believe:) 

The ending of this chapter is the glue of our faith.. It is the why we believe. 

Romans 8:24-38

24 "For in[o] hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes[p] for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes[q] with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God,[r] who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit[s] intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.[t]

28 We know that all things work together for good[u] for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.[v] 30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God’s Love in Christ Jesus

31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.[w] 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
    we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The Unexpected Ending- He is Faithful

This morning I awoke to the song "Hosanna." When I hear it, my imagination takes me to a place in history where the news of Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem is first breaking. As He enters in on a donkey, I see myself amongst the crowd of people who had been wondering if he would come. I can feel the desperateness and relief in their hearts as they shout "Hosanna" God save us!

They sing with a knowing that they finally get to see their prayers in faith become a reality. The rescue. And then, how they must have felt when their version of the story looked nothing like His.

After reading my devotional today, I thought God did respond to their cry for help.  The shout "God save us" tipped the bowl of prayers that had been filling with the prayers of faith since the beginning of time. The spill produced a shower of mercy and grace that gave them the ability to withstand His heartbreaking version of the story. Our plans almost never line up with God's. We expect the rescue to look a certain way. Unfortunately, most of the time, His version of the story is first seen through eyes of faith. Why, I guess it allows us to make a choice, is He good? Is He faithful? The crowd that day gathered to watch an expected ending, but it was just the beginning to an unexpected end. His ending would help them, and us make the right choice. He is good, and He is Faithful.

A lyric in the song above sums it all up for me.

"But when I think about the road you took for love, I know your grace will stay the path."

When we can't see what He's doing, we choose to believe He is working it out in a way that will reveal His good and His glory in our story.  He wants our story to be good, but sometimes our version has to die before He can write His. When He died on the cross, all we could see was an unjustified death. And it was, but it was the only way to justify it. His death gave us life. It took time to see what death was doing on the cross. And, with His mercy and grace, we learn to overcome the pain of watching our plans die until we see His plan come alive.

This season He keeps reminding of Sarah's story.

"She judged Him faithful who had promised". - Hebrews 11:11

What precedes those words about Sarah is where we find the way we can also judge Him faithful.

 "Through faith, Sarah herself received strength to conceive."

It is by faith, having faith in the unseen goodness and faithfulness of God, that we are given the "strength" (Mercy & Grace) to conceive His promise.

The ending to Sarah's story needed to die so God's could come alive within her. He let her write one, and it didn't turn out so good. He also gave her time to see her way didn't lead to life. I'm sure there was a private moment where she cried out too, God save me. It's at that moment we understand we need a new ending. We stop striving and struggling and let go. It's the perfect place for faith. Nothing else can enter because you can see no other ending. And that's when He gives us the strength to conceive a new plan, His perfect plan. In this space and place, we will see His goodness and judge Him faithful.

Another wonderful devotional below to remind us of His faithfulness. His mercies are new every single day. An anchor for us all.

RACHAMIM

“Do you believe,” said the teacher, “that God has mercy?”

“Yes,” I replied.  “Of course, you’ve taught me that.”

“No,” said the teacher.  “God does not have mercy.”

“With all respect,” I said cautiously, “that’s not right.”   It was the first time I had ever contradicted him in such a direct way.

“Prove your point,” he said.

“I was just reading the Book of Daniel.  In it, Daniel prays for God’s mercy on the people of Israel.  He says, “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness…”

“It doesn’t say that,” he replied, “not in the original language.  It says ‘to the Lord belong rachamim.'”

“What is rachamim?”

“Some would translate it as mercy.  But rachamim is not a singular noun.  It’s plural.  It doesn’t mean mercy.  It means mercies.  It means that God’s mercy is more than mercy.  God’s mercy is so great, so strong, and so deep that it can’t be contained in a single word.  Rachamim means that His mercy has no end.”

“What about the word for sin?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Is it by nature singular or plural?”

“The word for sin,” said the teacher, “is singular.”

“But the word for mercy is plural,” I said.

“And what odes that tell you?”

“That no matter what my sin is, no matter how great, the mercy of God is always greater.  And no matter how much I’ve sinned, no matter how many sins I have, the mercies of God are more than my sins.”

“Yes,” said the teacher.  “So don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that you’ve exhausted God’s mercy.  You never have.  You never could.  And you never will.  He will always have more mercies than you have sins, more than enough to cover every sin and to still have enough compassion left over to love you forever.  For what the Lord has for you is not mercy…but rachamim.”

The Mission:  Open your heart today to receive the rachamim God has for you, not only for your sins, but the overflowing rivers of His compassions and love.

Psalm 136; Lamentations 3:22-23; Daniel 9:9; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Cahn, Jonathan. “Rachamim.” The Book of Mysteries. Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2016. Day 56. Print.