5th Friday of Lent (March 22). God is for us

Prepare to Listen.  In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
 
Prayerfully Read Romans 8:31-34
31What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  32He 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?  33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  34Who 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.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
“If God is for us, who is against us?”  It’s a rhetorical question and we know the answer: No one!  But then bad things happen, and it feels like the whole world is against us and winning.  Have you ever experienced this?  What was it like?
 
Christians aren’t exempt from stuff being against us, such as hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword (violence) (v. 35).  As Tish Warren learned, “You cannot trust God to keep bad things from happening to you.”[1]  Bad things will and do happen to faithful followers of Jesus.  And that’s when we have no option but to trust that God is for us and that those against us will ultimately fail.  The solo, “If God before us,” near the end of the Messiah is sung with an assurance of God’s power to both keep us in, and take us through the bad times.
 
In case we didn’t get it in that first question, Paul asks two more in these verses: “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?”  And, “Who is to condemn?”  A lot of people try.  They say things like, ‘You call yourself a Christian and you did that?’  ‘Aren’t Christians supposed to be like Jesus?’  And maybe sometimes they’re right, we behaved badly.  Most often, a voice in my head condemns me, accusing me of not being good or loving enough.  If that happens to you too, remember Paul’s teaching—God justifies, makes us acceptable, not our works; Jesus died, was raised and now “intercedes for us.”  Jesus is at God’s right hand praying for you right now.  Can you trust him now?
 
What comforted or surprised you in these words of Paul this time?
 
Prayerfully Respond
For all those today who are discouraged because so much is against them, or condemning them, I pray to you O Lord.  Amen.

Live obediently.  Live as one who trusts God is for you.
[1] Harrison Warren, T.  Prayer in the Night.  Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2021, p. 22.