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Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. Romans 8:35-37

Have you ever been told by someone that they love you only to have them ‘change their mind’ later? Some relationships are built on eggshells. Those involved walk carefully lest they make some mistake that will change the other persons opinion of them and the relationship will fail.

Relationships built on human love falter under stress. Their stability is based on the performance of the other person and can change with the wind.

Jesus love for you is based on…

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Romans 8:9-11

Have you ever sat to ponder how Mary and Martha felt as Lazarus walked out of the tomb? Or how the parents of the little girl felt when Jesus returned her to their arms after…

 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.Romans 6:5-11

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. Romans 5:6-9

One of the problems we face in our walk with God is that we don’t have a true sense of how helpless we were. We rely on our religious activities and traditions; our status/power; the comparisons we make with the ‘bad sinners’ around us.

Paul says we were ‘utterly helpless’. That means that apart from Christ we were…

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. Romans 4:20-25

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Abraham? To be actually able to walk with God and talk with him about your life events? To be called God’s friend? Abraham wasn’t a perfect…