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In this week’s podcast, we flash back to last year when Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were found after being held hostage for ten years. They were beaten, raped, lost pregnancies and subjected to inhumanities too great to describe in this podcast.
So, how does this relate to our lives today?
I say this often: “Life, for all of us, is relative.”
This is what I mean: Sometimes you’ll hear about a professional athlete going through some sort of persecution or hard time. And you’ll hear people say, “What is he complaining about, he’s a millionaire?”
Well, everything is relative.
In other words, something absolutely terrible could happen to me, but as bad as I think it is, there’s always somebody who has it worse.
For instance, in the week when I found out that my mom has Alzheimer’s and my son has Autism, there were children dying in another country. Their families have got it much worse.
The girls that were held captive – they had it worse than anything I may be going through.
And still, I’m sure you could find examples of people suffering even worse than those girls did.
So, why do I bring this up?
Because you can relate it to your own life.
We have scripture that can help us, regardless of the place that we’re in. There are some verses that can live inside of you – that no one can ever take away.
For instance, Romans 8:36-39
…for the Scriptures tell us that for his sake we must be ready to face death at every moment of the day—we are like sheep awaiting slaughter;37 but despite all this, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us enough to die for us. 38 For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, 39 or where we are—high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean—nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us.
NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM GOD’S LOVE!! NOTHING!
Now, of course, this doesn’t mean that all you need to do is think about these verses and all of life’s troubles go away.
But it does mean that we have the power of God inside of us, and through that power, we can get by.
The Apostle Paul was whipped, beaten, shipwrecked, stoned and worse. He had it bad. And yet he, through the same power of the Holy Spirit that’s in you and me, wrote these very words to the church in Rome.
When you think about it, all of us face the demons that haunt our lives and our minds from time to time.
Times like this remind me of something that Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:8
8 Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart.
We need to be prayerfully on our guard and aware that no matter what life may throw at us, God’s love is mightier than anything!!