“God Is For Us”
I remember back years ago we were in the van traveling someplace as a family when my little daughter wiggled her way to the front of the van to ask me a question. She asked, “Dad, who do you like better, me or the devil?”
I turned to her wondering why she asked such a question and she had this twinkle in her eye and a big smile on her face – she couldn’t wait for what I would say. So I indulged her and said, “You know I don’t like the devil but I sure love you!” She giggled a bit and then went to her mother and asked the same question – “Who do you like better, me or the devil?” She asked this question to each member of the family. Everybody but her brothers told her they loved her and couldn’t stand the devil.
I don’t know what to make of my girl asking such a thing. It was a pretty safe question. She sure isn’t pitting herself against much competition. Maybe that was the point. She knew we loved her more than the devil. She asked us this question because it was safe. She knew we would affirm her and make her feel important and valued.
With this memory, I wonder if there is a part of us that wants to ask that same safe question that will always affirm us and tell us, “I sure love you”. With a world demanding so much of us, maybe an assuring pat on the back is needed more often than we care to believe.
With this thought, I point you to a huge pat on the back statement in the Bible: “God is for us.” (Romans 8:31). Consider each word.
GOD is for us. God certainly isn’t puny. The Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth, the One who controls all things, this “GOD is for us”
God IS for us. Not “will be” or “has been” or “could be if we behave ourselves”. No,
God is right now for us.
God is FOR us. The reason we know God is for us … “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) God absolutely wants to be our Father and have us receive His Son as our Savior.
God is for US . This means you and it means me. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we have done to make God love us less. “God is for us”.
It’s a great memory of my little daughter coming up to me with her question about liking her or the devil. Seeing her beaming face, I knew she wasn’t concerned about my answer. Not that my girl knew much about the devil, she simply knew she was her dad’s little girl. As Dad’s little girl she was confident.
It’s a safe and comforting thing to know – “God is for us” (Romans 8:31)
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