To Encourage You

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

How sure are you of anything?  Are you sure that you’ll be alive until tomorrow – absolutely sure?  I didn’t think so. How about your health? Are you sure that it’ll never get any worse than it is right now?  Are you sure your money will never run out – that nothing could possibly enter your life that could end up draining your bank account? I think about all the insurance policies that are out there as a result of our uncertainties – life, auto, health, long term care, cancer, boat – you can buy a policy to cover just about anything, and we buy it because we’re just not sure of what’s coming around the next bend.  We are unsure about the future, but we’re also often unsure about the present.  We don’t know all there is to know to be absolutely certain about most anything. We live in such an uncertain world.  

That’s one of the reasons the Bible is like nothing else that we know of, for it tells us about things that are sure.  It can do this because it comes from a God who knows everything – whether that everything resides in the past, the present, or the future.  But He doesn’t only know everything, He is in control of it all. That’s why one of the names we call Him is “Sovereign Lord” (Isaiah 61:1). 

And so we come to the verses above, one of the many in the Bible that speak about certainties.  It’s a verse about the certainty of the love of God.  It tells us that nothing can separate us from it. What an awesome thing this is. What an incredible thing to know.  And while this passage gives a whole list of things that can’t separate us from God’s love, it is the word “depth” that I’ve been thinking about today.  I’ve been thinking about what is meant by this word, what deep things this word “depth” might be referring to.  So for some answers, I’ve been doing some searching elsewhere in the Word of God.  

In the second verse of the Bible, we are told about the earth just after God created it.  It tells us that “darkness was upon the face of the deep.” It’s referring to the deepest parts of the ocean – a place where nothing but darkness resides.  It’s a place where no human being can live.  It’s a place where if we COULD be there, we would be utterly alone.  Yet God is there.  Psalm 139 assures us of this with the following words: “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”  In other words, no matter where you or I might be, including the deepest, darkest place on the face of the earth – God is there, and since God is love (1 John 4:8), His love is there as well.  

Such deep darkness can be a description of a physical place, or it can be a description of an emotional condition.  It was Jonah in the belly of a great fish that voiced both of these conditions in the following words: “For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me” (Jonah 2:3).  Jonah was sure he was forgotten, for he was in that place because of his sin.  Yet, even there he was not unreachable by God’s mercy. Even there he wasn’t beyond the touch of God’s great love.  

Which brings me to this question: Are you in the depths right now?  Are you in a very deep dark place in your life? Do you think you are so beyond the place of hope that you are SURE that no one cares? Well, if that’s the place where you find yourself, God’s Word is telling you that there is much more to the story than you know. So, no matter how deep things look to you, look up to what God has told you about His great love.  You see, your depth and your darkness can’t separate you from Him.  He’s just as present in that darkness as He is in the light.  It’s a truth you can hold on to, if need be, even by your fingernails, for it’s as sure as anything in creation can be. In fact, it’s surer than that, for the God who is the Creator and Sustainer of everything has declared to you and me that nothing in all of His creation can separate you from His love.  

So, listen to this prayer from Ephesians 3:14-19.  While it may come from the pen of the apostle Paul, it also comes from the heart of the God Who inspired Paul to write it: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and DEPTH, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  

Your circumstances, although they may be deep, are no deeper than the infinite depth of the love of God. Believe it. Hold on to it. Embrace it. For it’s surer than any difficulty you may be in.