#focr edition 20

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Never Despair

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

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

~ Romans 8:35-39

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Afflictions may kill us but they cannot hurt us; they may take away my life but they cannot take away my God, my Christ, my crown. ~ Thomas Brooks

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written:“ For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. ”But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~ Romans 8:31-39

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Nothing in life can stop God from loving us: neither life nor death, or angelic power, no demonic power, no human influence can separate His love from us. God accomplishes His eternal purposes in our lives through pain, suffering, affliction, tribulations, stress, etc. He causes us to grow in the likeness of Christ as the pressures of life are applied to us. He does not promise to take us out of our pain, but to fashion and form us like Jesus. "We gain a surpassing victory through the one who loved us" (Robertson).

Wil Pounds

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Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of Christ, John Piper

Nothing — not hunger, not debt, not abuse, not death — can separate you from the love of Christ. These ten insights will show you why.

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Paul is not writing these wonderful truths so that we can feel more secure as we pursue the American dream. Rather, he was writing to those who were suffering hardship, persecution, and even martyrdom because of their commitment to Christ and the gospel. Paul is equipping us with the knowledge that we need not only to persevere  through trials for Christ’s sake, but to overwhelmingly conquer in all these difficulties. Paul was not writing as a speculative theologian. His words here serve as a mini-biography, in that he had already suffered all of these trials (2 Cor. 11:23-29), except the sword (which he later would add to his résumé!). While we may not have to face martyrdom, we will face many trials and death, if Christ does not return. So we need to understand and apply Paul’s words about how God’s love enables us to be more than conquerors through every trial that we face for His sake.

Steven J. Cole

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So finally the apostle sums up in the emphatic comprehensive assertion that neither the forces of time, "things present and to come," nor the forces of space, "height and depth," bewildering the imagination or depressing the soul, no, "nor any other created thing," above or below, personal or impersonal, animate or inanimate, known or unknown, shall defeat the loving purpose of Christ in the salvation of his people. "Many waters cannot drown his love, nor the floods quench it."

S.R. Aldridge, Victorious Love

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With God as our Ally, we may safely face the world in arms. Assurance is thus traced to its Divine Source. It is not boastfulness, but humble dependence upon the almighty strength of God. The One is more than a match for all his and our foes.

R.M. Edgar, Faith Rising into Assurance