What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Saint Paul knew whereof he spoke as he wrote this wonderful passage. He had personally suffered, "anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness," and so forth and so on. You name it and he'd been there.
If he'd been discouraged by any of these discouraging circumstances, that really didn't matter because he had come through it and his hope had been restored. Not only restored; refreshed!
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! And in his bones he knew that; he knew it in all the parts of his body that had been scourged, kicked, beaten, or imprisoned. Not to mention his soul-searching disappointment when trusted friends and loyal disciples proved unfaithful. Somehow, despite it all, he was still there. And the Spirit of Jesus remained with him.
This is the persevering spirit we pray for during our personal and collective dark hours.
To practice the Christian faith we must pay daily attention to the Holy Spirit; which is to say, "How am I doing? "How are we doing? Are we working together as a team?
Do we have the right spirit?" Given that there are many wrong spirits, are we being guided by the Holy Spirit which the Father and the Son give to us?
Saint John exhorts us in his first letter,
Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.He then added a simple test:
This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.
We must pray daily and often for God's guiding spirit. We dare not presume upon some past sign, anointment, appointment, or experience that, because we once "got the Spirit" we have it today.
But we can be sure the Lord wants to be with us and to guide us. "I am with you always." he has said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.