Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room
March 14, 2023
Read Romans 8:31-39
31 So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. Won’t he also freely give us all things with him? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? It is God who acquits them. 34 Who is going to convict them? It is Christ Jesus who died, even more, who was raised, and who also is at God’s right side. It is Christ Jesus who also pleads our case for us. 35 Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, We are being put to death all day long for your sake. We are treated like sheep for slaughter. 37 But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. 38 I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers 39 or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.
Good Morning, God loves us and will protect us!
God promises to be with us always. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s power of death is revealed to the world. God created the earth and everything within it: all the living and unliving things. Only God understands the big picture and holds the vision of what will be.
Imagine an artist as he or she begins to put paint strokes onto a canvas. I have watched some demonstrations where the artist puts a stroke here and there in what seems to be very random. I could not see what was growing upon the canvas as I looked upon these strange combinations of strokes and colors. Finally, with enough clues, the lightbulb in my brain went off, and I could see the artist’s vision. The final image was unrevealed until the artist was ready for me to see it.
God’s plan for us follows this pattern. We live our lives, and things happen that often seem unrelated or random in the grand scheme of things. We suddenly make a wrong turn and end up finding something extraordinary. We lose our job, and then discover a new path filled with blessings. We encounter great despair, but like a phoenix rising from the ashes, we reemerge stronger than we could ever have imagined.
God, like the artist filling the canvas with strokes of paint, has a plan for each of us. 11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jeremiah 29:11 However, God doesn’t cause or create our problems, but with each challenge we face, God, through the Holy Spirit within us, uses these moments to redirect us and head us into the “new” direction.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord
Who abide in His shadow for life
Say to the Lord, "My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!"
And He will raise you up on eagles' wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand
Knowing God, Thank You for being with us. Thank you! You are our God, and You protect us from our enemies. Thank You In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen
Thought for the day: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1).
Trust in God! Pastor Liz
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