Good Monday Morning (1-17-11),

There is a great promise. It is a promise written from the foundations of the world, inscribed upon the corner stones of our faith, embedded in the deep place within us where Jesus lives.

It is a promise of eternal partnership where the Most High strengthens those who are most low. It is a promise expressed in a question:

Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love?

The question itself is redundant — asked in order to force my focus away from the lies that surround me and toward a pain-defeating, grief-dissolving, death-defying truth.

Who shall ever separate me from the love of Christ?

Suffering cannot do it. No matter what pain I endure it will never overpower the relief He brings. The reason is so obvious when I take my eyes off myself and look at my Savior, seated at the right hand of God: He bore my suffering. He took all suffering upon Himself so that my burden would be light and easy and I would have rest.

Am I attempting to carry this weight of suffering all by myself? Oh yes, I admit that sometimes I think I am toting the load alone and in the dark. These moments are my most miserable because I have given in to the lie of self-sufficiency which leads straight to self-pity.

It was because of love that Jesus came to earth and bore my suffering. Shall I refuse the gift?

What about afflictions? Those trials and temptations and sicknesses that litter my path like boulders fallen from nearby mountains. Will they separate me from the love of Christ?

No, because in all my afflictions He was afflicted. There is no affliction that I must endure by myself. I am not alone. His love has attached itself to me. He has come to make His home in me. He constantly pleads my case before the throne!

What about tribulation, or calamity or distress or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword? God forbid! I begin to understand that none of these things can defeat me because the promise is written in the blood of a Savior, shed for me, presented to the Father on my behalf, poured over me and painted across the doorways of my life: In all these things (everything I just mentioned) we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him who loved us.

If I believe the Word of God then I must be persuaded about this. Persuaded means that I am convinced by the great weight of argument and evidence. The entire Word of God proves the promise — not just for a few but for any who are willing to enter into the Kingdom.

I am persuaded beyond doubt, I am very sure, that death cannot separate me from the love of Christ. Is He not the firstborn of those who will live after death? Didn’t He promise that if He went to make a place for me that there would be room when I got there? By His victory He has removed the sting, the fear, the permanence, even the threat of death by ushering eternal life into the here-and-now.

I am persuaded that life cannot separate me from God’s love. None of the disturbances or disparities or unreasonableness or distractions of life can come between my Father and myself because He has made His home within me.

I am persuaded that no angel or any dark principality can separate me from His love. He made me in His image, crowned me with glory and honor, made me just a little lower than Himself and gave me dominion over all things.

I am persuaded that nothing in my future or any power to come, no matter how high or deep…that nothing in all creation has any ability to separate me from the love of God which is displayed, made perfect and completed, in Christ Jesus.

I am persuaded. Nothing can come between us except those things I invite in through unbelief…which is why persuasion is necessary. Nothing else will do. No other attitude will sustain me in this truth. I must be completely persuaded.

It is a promise. It is written in black and white in the physical realm; in bright pulsing blood red in the spiritual realm; engraved on my heart for eternity.

It is a promise. I am persuaded.

“Who shall separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?

Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us, for I am persuaded beyond doubt that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening 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 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35, 37-39. Amplified.

Laurie Gross