“If God is for us, then who can be against us?”
Romans 8:31
“If God is for you…”
I missed the rest of the devotional a wonderful volunteer shared with our team before our work day started. Instead, my mind spun on those five words.
“If God is for you.”
I’d been pursuing God, following hard after Him and listening for His voice, asking Him to lead me and expand my territory. He’d been faithful in all of it, often in ways that exceeded my expectations. Yet still something nipped at my heels, doubt that dogged me like a persistent shadow.
Was God for me?
Was He truly on my side? In all my endeavors, in all my dreams, in all the big prayers I was praying–was He for me?
And what did it even mean if He was?
The words lingered in my heart throughout the day as I weighed different decisions and invited others to join me in praying through them. They lingered as I sat down at my keyboard to write. They lingered with whispers of hope and promises of truth.
In context, the passage from Romans 8 from which the words were taken speaks of our freedom from sin and the salvation work that Christ did for us. But it also talks about God’s heart, His desire and plan to work in us and through us. “Will he not also graciously give us all things?”
It has echoes of the prayer that Jabez prayed, “Lord, bless me and enlarge my territory.” The same prayer that Solomon prayed, “Lord, give me wisdom.” The same prayer of countless heroes of the faith who saw the potential of all God could do through them and laid claim to it. They asked Him for it, just as Jesus instructed us to ask, promising it would be given to us.
But isn’t that selfish? Self-seeking? In a world consumed with accumulating wealth and fame and influence, how could it be right to ask God for more?
Yet, when our hearts are aligned with God’s, the “more” we ask for has nothing at all to do with our comfort and position, and everything to do with what He could accomplish through us. It has to do with dreaming outside the lines, of letting our imaginations run wild with possibilities, and then asking God to do more than we could ask or imagine. It has to do with trusting Him, with wanting all of Him in all of our lives, and finding our deepest joy in the outpouring of His Spirit through us.
And when we pursue Him like that, we can be fully assured that He is for us. On our side. Not only cheering us on, but working on our behalf. Moving mountains. Changing hearts. Seeing the good work through to completion.
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
