Word Filled Wednesday for March 17 - Romans 8:39

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. In honor of the holiday this is a beautiful picture of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland to illustrate my chosen verse for today.

Romans 8:35-39 states: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

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

So sure is Paul of the fact that as children of God that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God that he wrote of it in this passage in the Bible.

Remember when you faltered in your faith and thought that God might turn His back from you? He didn't turn.

Remember those sins you committed that you knew were wrong but did them anyway and thought God might never love you again because they were just "too bad"? He still loves.

Remember when your life for years was such that you figured God would lose patience with you? He's still here after all this time.

So many times we think that we have run so far from God, done so many things to turn from Him or try His mercy, his patience and His love that He just wants to wash His hands of us and say, "I GIVE UP!" In reality, the only thing that keeps us from God is ourselves. Our embarrassment, our shame, our hurt, our anger, our pride, our stubbornness, our feelings of inadequacy, our belief that we're not good enough or our fear that because we didn't believe in Him for so long that He wants nothing to do with us . . . that is what is keeping us from God. Nothing outside of US can keep us from God.

But, if we have accepted that He loves us SO MUCH that He sent His only Son to die for us – for you, for me, for every single person in this entire world that ever was or ever will be; if we understand that by accepting that gift of eternal life and salvation freely given to us by Jesus' death on the cross – in our place, that we will live forever, even after death, in peace, joy, happiness, love, worship and on and on, and we go ahead and accept that gift and take it unto ourselves with absolutely no strings attached from God, then nothing, nothing, nothing that we do will ever separate us from that love that He bears for us. Not even ourselves.

At some point in our lives we may have not believed in God or His promises to us. We may have believed that surely our unbelief built a wall between us and God, if we even believed in Him, and that we never will be welcomed by Him, that life's circumstances, sorrows, fears, trials, illnesses, disappointments, sins, habits, etc. will keep Him from wanting us. It's simply not true.

In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd counts his flock of 100 sheep and finds that one lamb is missing. Surely one lamb out of 100 isn't worthy of regard. But because the Shepherd loved that one small sheep every bit as much as the 99 that were there, he secured the 99 and went to search for the one that had wandered away and got lost in order to bring that one little sheep back home with him and he rejoices over finding the lost little sheep. It's the same as with God. He loves us so much that He will bring us to Him, whether by circumstances, the words of a friend, a passage in the Bible, the desperate feeling of needing there to be something more that what is there now, etc. God wants us, even when it feels like nobody else does. God said, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent".

God knows our needs, God provides for us, God hears our tears, our sorrows, our fears, our pain, our disappointments, our unbelief, and He's there, even when we don't feel Him or understand. If He has done all of that for us already, then absolutely nothing will keep us from the love that God has for us. After all, He gave His son's life so that we could live in eternity with Him and give all of our worries, cares and burdens to Him. So that He could take care of them for us and take care of us.

Oh how He loves you and me!

If You’d like to join us for Word Filled Wednesday, post your photo and Bible verse. (or feel free to add mine to your site) Then send a link back so others can visit and have a word filled day!

To see other wonderful Word Filled Wednesdays for this week please hop on over to Christy @ Critty Joy or drop by “The 160 Acre Woods” to find out more about how to participate in Word Filled Wednesday's.