“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:  “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. “

-Romans 8:35-39

I recall coaches rallying our team before big games. With the team dressed, crowding the locker room, preparing to run onto the field, the coach spoke with passion igniting the team’s emotion, building our confidence, and encouraging our will to fight. The hard work of preparation was finished; this was time to charge forward in confidence. Our coach passionately urged us forward instilling the knowledge, belief and confidence that we would win the game. Paul concludes chapter 8 of Romans with a pre-game rallying cry.

Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nothing. We will face trouble, hardship, pain and danger, but none of that will be able to separate us from God unless of course we grant it that power.

God gives His spiritual life here and now. He offers His life to us now, while we still walk around this world in these bodies. He offers life now. All we need to do is receive His holy gift of grace. We often talk about God and we should. We say and we understand intellectually that He created all things by speaking, that He breathes the breath of life into each of us, that He is infinite, He is everywhere all at the same time, that He is unbound by time, that He has power beyond anything we can ever comprehend.

And while He creates life, He also conquered death. Through Jesus Christ, He conquered death and He built a bridge spanning the chasm separating us from Him. We often discuss His incomprehensible power. As I stop to ponder the power necessary to conquer death I realize that is truly incomprehensible power and authority. That is sovereignty.

And His Holy Spirit dwells within us. His Holy Spirit dwells within you. And Jesus promises, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” (Acts 1:8). God is all-powerful, and you have His power within you the moment you first believe.

But we continue to struggle. We have each, the moment we first believe, received God’s holy gift of redemption. We are children of God, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. But we still struggle because we continue to live in this dark realm, we continue to be influenced by evil desires and we are still blindsided by evil forces. Sometimes we invite them in through our choices, but at other times they appear through no wrongdoing of our own.

We exist in the in-between state – we have experienced some of His glory but we have not yet experienced it fully. It’s like walking in the house on Thanksgiving and smelling the aroma of the amazing food, but not yet feasting on it. The aroma wets our appetite; it makes us want more. And we continue to live in this realm where everyone experiences hardship and trouble.

Sometimes hardship is caused by our own poor decisions, but sometimes it is thrust upon us from wholly outside faceless forces like famine. Rain stops falling, crops stop growing, agricultural communities falter and people starve. Here, today, we discuss global economic downturns leading to the downward spiral of layoffs, homelessness and starvation. Hardship thrust upon people from outside forces.

At other times, evil has a face. As we move through the world we brush elbows with various forms of evil, and we know that people acting under the influence of evil commit horrific acts deeply scarring innocent victims every day. Innocence is lost, trust is shattered and pain ripples through families and communities.

When evil is thrust upon us we are forced to make a choice – how will we respond? Will we seek God in response to the unexpected and undeserved pain, or will we allow it to drive a wedge between us and God?

Paul discusses suffering and hardship as certainties, not just for humans but for the whole creation (see Romans 8:22). He is also certain that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, that He knows us, that He knows our needs and that He prays for us. When we know this in the depths of our souls, how can any hardship separate us from God? Like a good coach, Paul urges us to conclude that nothing can separate us from God. He urges us to make use of God’s power within us, to know that the Holy Spirit is praying for us, to know that He is with us, and to use pain and suffering as tools to grow closer to the Source of love.

Know in your heart, in the depths of your soul that no horrific evil thrust upon you, no sickness, no hunger, no addiction, nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nothing.