Nothing.....

"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 8:38-39. I am also convinced that when we are walking most closely with our Lord, when we are following His will and plan for our lives, that's when Satan will try the hardest to make us feel that we are separated from that LOVE. That's when we are most vulnerable to feeling attacked, distracted, discouraged. These attacks can come from irritating co-workers, challenging patients, sick and sleep deprived kids. We can find ourselves distracted by the day to day things that we busy ourselves with; or the old habits that seem to rear their ugly heads when we are most tired. We suddenly find ourselves scrutinizing every last detail of our bodies, and wishing we were someone different. We become afraid when our daughters start to realize that the world values a different kind of beauty. We look into the eyes of a road raged driver, and feel disgust rather than mercy and the desire to pray for him. We see starving children and hear others saying, "you can't really trust anyone with your money...you don't know that what you are giving is actually going to help those children." We come home from a missions trip and we get sick from travel to a foreign land, and start to forget the journey of those who never get to go home, because that is where they live. We find out that we can make a difference in another person's life, but then become distracted by all the obstacles to do so.
You see, I would have been just like Peter. Seeing my Lord, I would have started to walk on water and then quickly begin to sink. But I want to cling to Romans 8: 38-39, and to Joshua 1:9, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." I want to run, unhindered by the worries of this world, the race that my Sovereign God has set out for me. I want to sing at the top of my voice, that my Redeemer Lives, and in the end He will stand upon this EARTH. I want to praise Him with my life, with my all, with my very thoughts. I want to bring Him glory. I want to bring the blood of Christ into my home, and plead it over my children. I want to speak about the plans that He has for us, and teach my children to see His fingerprints everywhere they go.
NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. Sweet friends, I pray that you will cling to this truth as well. I pray that you will feel what God says is true, and ignore the rest. I pray that we can encourage each other in this process of walking where God says we should walk.