Just a thought by coppi

“Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.”

Psalms 34:5 NLT

“Yesterday is history; tomorrow is mystery; today is all there is.”

The verse prior to Ps 34:5  is one of my favorites- “I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears”: however, verse five seemed to light up my heart with joy when I read it.  Sometimes a scripture following another puts greater fullness and meaning into another.  One scripture that I could never wrap myself around is: 

 Roman’s 8:31. 

“Romans 8 contains a wealth of spiritual truth. Here the Apostle Paul lays emphasis on what God is to His people and what He has done for them, then suddenly bursts out with the question – “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Notice that the word ‘if’ which Paul uses does not denote doubt but is a conclusion, a consequence or an affirmation signifying since.  The argument is this: God is so evidently for us that nothing or no-one can successfully be against us. There are plenty of opposing forces against the Christian but nothing can successfully overthrow him”.  

I was stumped by the ‘if’ in Roman’s 8:31, because I did not think God was for me.  When I told my grief counselor about my trouble with the word if, she suggested I use the word ‘since’.

Also, following that scripture 31 is verse 32:  “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”  

By doing more research on Roman’s 8:31 which denotes ‘if’, I finally moved forward in understanding that God is indeed for me.  I had a lot of negativism in my church growing up which hurt my understanding of a good God – it has taken lots of years and study to change the ‘mean’ God into a caring, loving, God, who is for me not against me.

Just a thought by coppi