The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"For Us"
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).
As a father, I know a bit about being for children (and the adults they become). To desire the absolute best at all times for offspring seems innate in the hearts of most parents, whether our sons and daughters live as we would have them live, or not. This sensibility, emotion, and yearning begins when we first become aware of a child's existence. It never leaves, but rather grows in our hope for the optimum experience of life, most importantly meaning a vibrant relationship and fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and a life lived for His glory.
This atmosphere of the parental heart exists in us because of our Heavenly Father's heart. He is the source and influence of "for us." Indeed, to whatever degree we long for our sons and daughters' best, God's yearning transcends every desire we have ever experienced. Let us pause for a moment and make this personal. For you. For me. It matters not where we may be along the path of righteousness in the present moment. A for us Father lovingly desires our best and the optimum experience of life possible through Christ. This explains the blessings of life, bestowed as encouraging evidence of our Father's devotion. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). It also explains our challenges, administered and allowed for purposes of growth and correction unachievable without difficulty, pain, and hardship. Indeed, "for us" guides our Father's heart and hand in loss every bit as much as in gain. "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6).
"For us." Five letters. Two words. Eternal and infinite devotion to our hearts. Again, let us make this blessedly and personally encouraging. As necessary, let us also be reproved and corrected. Our Father ever works for our best interest of conforming us to the spiritual and moral image of the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:28-29). Nothing we do or do not do affects His determination. The blessed truth applies in any moment to the most faithful and the most failing believer. For us. Such grace ever pervades our Father's heart because on the cross of Calvary, He acted against His eternally beloved Son, the Lord Jesus. The cross best reveals the measure of His dedication to our best interests, or rather, it tells us what it can of our Father's measureless devotion to us that transcends all measure. For us. We can utter the words in less than a second. Eternity, however, will be required to even begin our voyage into God's devotion and dedication.
"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."
(II Thessalonians 2:16-17)
Weekly Memory Verse
What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"
(Romans 8:31)
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