Be Still and Know

Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” There are so many thoughts swirling around in my head each morning when I wake up, and the one thing I need to do, is to immediately spend time with the Lord. The enemy of my soul is continuously putting thoughts into my head that say to me, “If God really loved you, you would not have all of this chaos going on in your life,” or “If God is really who He says He is, then why did He allow your son to die,” and the biggest one that he whispers into my ear is, “God is not real, none of this is real; He doesn’t really care about you and there is no Heaven.” Even though I am confidently established in God’s love, even though I am a seasoned Christian and have been walking with the Lord for decades, when deep dark valleys come, it is so easy for me to entertain these lies. Satan uses my trials and tribulations to convince me that God does not love me. Satan wants to keep me weak and vulnerable; he wants me to believe I am powerless and incapable of being a threat to his kingdom of darkness. But this scripture tells the truth; there is nothing, absolutely nothing, I can do or that can occur in my life that separates me from the love of Christ who dwells within me. Jesus said we will have tribulation in this world, but He also promised us that He has overcome the world. This passage goes on to say in verses 38-39, “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.” What our Father is saying to us is there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. He clearly sets this out in scripture and makes sure that nothing is left out; this covers everything. I need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves me when I am hurting and struggling, when my heart is overwhelmed, when my life has been shattered, when people are cruel and unkind, when I have been abandoned and when I am fearful, when the pain and the sorrow of loving and losing is just too much to bear, that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate me from the love of the One who created me. John 3:21 says, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” Doing the right thing in every situation, even when we don’t feel like it, will ultimately heal and reign in my emotions. Doing the right thing even when we have been wronged is extremely important for my spiritual growth. It is very difficult to do when I am hurting and wounded, when I am faced with affliction and tribulation, when the world around me is screaming at me, pulling and tugging at me, trying to get me to react and plan a counter-attack, but God has taught me to put in place my new life commandment, the most important scripture in the Bible for me, my life verse which says, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) – Melody