Recently one of our Life Group leaders shared with me how blessed he had been by the verse Romans 8:28. Today let us look at another encouraging verse in Romans 8:31 on confronting challenges in the Christian life. If it sometimes seems like we are swimming upstream against a strong current of multiple difficulties, it may be that we are going against the flow of this world, system, together with this values and belief system. Yet, if we truly understand deep in our hearts that God is for us, we can experience much encouragement.
You may have heard the expression "God plus one equals a majority", that means that even if it seems like the whole world is against us, if God is on our side, we have the strength to come out ahead as winners and over-comers. When Satan throws bad things at us, we need not lose hope. In fact, we can be certain that God will turn it around for our greater blessing because He is for us. When God first made man, He gave man dominion over everything on earth. However, when Adam fell, sin and death entered the world and for a while man lost his authority to the devil.
Did Satan win? No! God had a marvelous plan of redemption by sending His Son Jesus to die for us and He wants us to know that Jesus' death did more than merely restore us to the position Adam had - it was to place us in a much higher position! When the Father raised Jesus from the dead, we who are in Christ were raised with Him. In other words, we are now seated with Him at God's right hand in the heavenly places, "far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come" (Ephesians 1:21). Adam never had this position. Therefore through Jesus' death and resurrection, we have received much more.
In the books of Moses, we read of how God brought the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey. Satan might have thought he could spoil God's plan by placing all sorts of difficulties in their way but God helped His people overcome them all. He allowed their enemies to build their homes and cities, dig well and cultivate crops until the right time came. God then brought the Israelites into the land to displace those people.
Eventually the Israelites inherited large beautiful cities they had not built, houses full of good things they did not fill, deep wells that they did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees they did not plant (Deuteronomy 6:10-11). Although Satan tried to prevent God's plan for His people from coming through, they ended up receiving much more ... as long as they obeyed Him. The devil may throw obstacles and evil circumstances at you, but God can turn those evil schemes around for your greater blessing because you are His child and He is firmly behind you and surely for you!
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