By Pastor William Y. K. Brown Ph.D
(Resident Pastor)
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Osu-Bethel.
Tel: 0244165628/0243310773.
wykbrown@gmail.com
SABBATH
THEME: GOD CARES IN A DECILLION WAYS
SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:31
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
REFLECTIONS
It is common knowledge that experience is the best teacher. Current experience provides the basis for managing future experiences and making the right choices and decisions. Without a doubt, one’s ability to withstand a situation is greatly enhanced by previous experience in similar circumstances. Christians are highly privileged because, in this life, they always have God’s support. Daily, they experience His grace – it is renewed every morning (Lamentation 3:22-23). His love for humanity never wanes or ceases; therefore, His support is constantly assured and expected. God’s kindness and favor are on their side. With this, no faithful Christian should fret, fear, or give up hope.
May we declare here and now that your responsibility is to trust God, and His reciprocal responsibility is to reward the trust you have reposed in Him. God is never mean, stingy, or a miser. He is ever-giving, ever-sacrificing, and ever-present. The good news is that in a trillion circumstances, God has demonstrated in a decillion ways that He cares, and He is never absent from His people when they need Him most. If you call on Him a decillion times, He will be present with you a decillion times and even more. Through it all, He will succor, sustain, and keep you.
So, Paul aptly articulates and expresses his conviction in Romans 8:31 – “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Then, immediately, he states the rationale for his conviction based on God’s benevolence, saying in verse 32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Paul asks another thought-provoking question in verse 35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Any of these devastating circumstances cannot and should not detach us from the solid love of Christ. We agree with Him in affirming this – [37]Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. [38]For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, [39]nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -verses 37-39.
Beloved, the overarching privilege you have that should give you daily victories is the gift of the Holy Spirit. In verse 26, Paul declares: “Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” The Holy Spirit is our helper, counselor, teacher, instructor, and guide. The Spirit inspires us because we are “. . .heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” In this battle of life, you have constant help, for “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.” – Isaiah 30:21.
MY SONG OF COMMITMENT
“Through it all.”
LET US PRAY
– Praise and thank God for His mercies throughout the week; thank Him for saving your life from the enemy; pray to trust Him always;
– Pray for five people you want God to save; pray for unreached territories where the gospel has to go; pray for those who are experiencing complex challenges around you;
– Pray for war victims, the displaced, refugees, and irregular migrants; pray for the cessation of ongoing wars; pray for families to hold on to God during these scary times;
– Pray for the peace of the nation; pray for the gospel to convict souls and give hope to the hopeless in our society; pray for the sick and the lonely.
