I wish i had a better word to express my wonder and worship.

WHAT, THEN, SHALL WE SAY IN RESPONSE TO THESE THINGS?  IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? .  - ROMANS 8:31

I have one word written in my Bible next to our verse for this month. Do you know what it is? 

AMAZING! 

That’s it. All caps and an exclamation point. I seriously have no idea when I wrote that, but I can tell you without question why I wrote it. It’s because this verse IS amazing. It’s the climax of the whole chapter preceding it. There’s this massive build-up, and this verse is the place where Paul (the author) pauses and just takes a breath to summarize what he’s just detailed. It’s the expression of his own total amazement, like he can’t even believe it. You could paraphrase it this way, “What can I even say in light of all of these incredible things that God has done? The summary is this: God is for us; who can be against us?!” 

If the Bible had emojis, this verse would be followed by a 🤯. 

It’s simply mind blowing. Every time I read this verse, I feel it’s truth in my soul. I wonder that the God of everything is not distant or angry at me, but is intimately concerned with me, caring for my every step, relentlessly pursuing me, even delighting in me. In me! How is it true? How is it that God himself is for me? Me, specifically? Me, personally? I simply cannot fathom it. I can know it in my brain, but when I try to feel it in my bones, they tremble and buckle. It is too much.

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And he is for you too. 

You know it if you read last week’s devo. And if you did, I have a question for you: did you do your homework? Did you read all of Romans 8? Did your jaw drop at all of the ways that God is for you? I hope it did. I hope you spent some time reading those astounding truths. If not, there’s no judgement, just hope that you might do so, because it will fill up your soul. If you recall, last week we did a brief overview of so many of the ways Romans 8 tells us that God is for us. It’s this huge accumulation of wonder—heaping one inconceivable truth of God on top of the next, until this tidal wave of goodness is hanging over us. We must cower and exclaim, “What is mankind that you are mindful of [us]?” (Psalm 8:4) But he is mindful of us—setting us free from our every wrong, filling us with his Spirit, directing our paths, adopting us as his own dear children. Yes! We are known, called, loved, accepted… Are you overwhelmed yet? Do you feel that wave welling up? Are your emotions just threatening to burst? What do I say in response to these things? 

AMAZING!  

It’s all I can say. It’s thoroughly insufficient, still I must say it. I have no satisfactory way of expressing the worship and the wonder that overcomes me when I think of God’s grace to me. It is EVERYTHING. So I say: 

If God is for me, then everything is different.  

If God is for me, then I can trust his plan.  

If God is for me, then there is nothing else.  

If God is for me, what can stand against me?  

Surely this is AMAZING! I hope you are amazed too.

How would your life be different if you really lived like God is for you? 

If God is really for you, how does that change how you see your situation?

Thanks for reading,