FOR
prep: on behalf of; in favor of
If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31 NIV
I read the words again.
Devastated. Alone. Betrayed. Disillusioned. Worried. Ashamed. Heartbroken.
Friends of mine on Facebook vulnerably disclosed the heaviness in their hearts. People who have lots of good in their lives. People who have comfortable homes, loving families, sufficient income, and plenty of friends.
These brave friends of mine who shared their words are not alone. Sad things, scary things, and hard to understand things happen to all of us. We are living in very trying times, and everybody feels it. We need someone who truly understands what is really going on in our lives, our families, our bodies, and our hearts. We need someone who can help us hold the heaviness that feels like too much.
We need to know that someone is in our corner.
This promise in the book of Romans reminds us that we have Jesus in ours. When we feel like the almost-beaten fighter who stumbles back to his corner man for relief, we can count on him to take care of us. He is in our lonely corners, our terrified corners, our disappointed corners, our guilt-ridden corners, and our painful corners. He knows exactly what we need. He wants to restore us, to heal us, to give us his strength and peace.
But sometimes we question. Why am I going through this? Is God punishing me? How can he be “for me” when I fail to live the way he wants me to?
The extra-hard thing about the corners we find ourselves in is that they are complicated with doubt, shame, and fear. Lies from the enemy tell us this is what we deserve or that God is far away. And that is exactly when and where we need to hold onto this promise from God. We need to believe that he is for us.
He chose us before we did anything good, bad, right, or wrong.
He knew that we would have trouble in this world and that we would go our own way.
He sent his only Son to redeem us and bring us back to him: forgiven, free, victorious, strong, and new.
The best thing about having Jesus in our corner is that he doesn’t just stay there. He doesn’t simply sit back and watch us struggle, occasionally giving us water or patching up a cut. He is ready and able to get in the ring and take our place. He is on our side, and he will fight for us.
Dear Jesus, you are my strength, my hope, and my peace. I kneel here in my corner and surrender everything to you today. Thank you that you are fighting for me. Amen.
TAKE YOUR TICKET
Jesus is for us.
Let’s ask him to fight in our place the battles of this day.