The power of God at work in and through us saves.
Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. 9 God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.
10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
13 I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles. 14 For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike. 15 So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
Romans 1:8-17 (NLT)
The Good News of Jesus Christ is the power of God at work.
What beautiful and powerful words these are in Romans 1:8-17. Let’s start at the beginning. Verse 8. You will get noticed when you follow Christ. Your faith will be noticed by all those around you. You may not feel any different, but others will see something different in you. Something that they will want for themselves. This is how good our God is! He makes us attractive even when we don’t know it:). The Roman believers were the talk of the town. No, the talk of the world! That’s impressive. And it is the same for us. Get noticed for the right thing.
Paul was a prayer warrior.
The next little nugget we find in this Scripture (verse 9) is that Paul prayed day and night. He was a prayer warrior. He knew the power of prayer. It is that important. We need to do our very best to imitate Paul and start praying all the time. Talk to God as you’re driving, when you’re in the shower, when you lay your head down on your pillow, when you wake up in the morning, as you go through your day. Just keep talking to God. He is always there and He is always listening.
So start talking – right now!
It doesn’t always have to be a formal, on-your-knees-in-front-of-an-altar prayer. He wants to be our best friend. What do best friends do? Talk to each other. Start thinking of Him as your very dearest friend and you’ll notice a difference in how you talk to Him – and how often you talk to Him. It’s all good because He’s good.
In the next few verses (11-15), we see that Paul was so eager to visit the Roman believers. He wanted to share with them all that Christ had done for Him. He wanted to impart spiritual gifts on them through his witness and testimony. I’m fairly certain that he wanted to lay eyes on them and then lay hands on them as well. He wanted to give them kisses and hugs and embrace them with all the love he had for them in Christ.
We need to pray for this eagerness for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We need more compassion and more love – the type of compassion and love that can only come from Jesus. Ask for it today. He desperately wants to give us these good and perfect gifts. These gifts help each of us to be built up in our faith in Lord Jesus so that we can edify and build up one another. It is a beautifiul circle of comfort and encouragement in Christ’s world. And as with all circles, there is no beginning and no end. The comfort and encouragement and compassion and love we receive from Christ and we share with others is endless when we make Him the focus of our attention.
We simply cannot be ashamed about the Good News of Jesus Christ.
For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.
Romans 1:16
I typed out verse 16 again so that we could read it twice. It is that powerful and we should grab hold of these words and make them our cornerstone.
He is our Lord and Savior and if we cannot proclaim His name here on earth, how are we going to do it before His throne in Heaven? We need to pray for Him to give us the courage and boldness to raise our hands in total surrender. It is through His power that we are saved. It is through His power that we have life. We need to grab hold of that power and use it to share the Good News with everyone. Time is short and we need to make sure that we each do our part in sharing His name.
We are right with God because of the work Jesus did on the cross for you and for me.
This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
Romans 1:17
It is finished! We can walk in fullness of Christ here on earth. He wishes for us to have Heaven on earth. That is His will for us.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10b
These words in Scripture are very much for us today.
They contain instruction and advice on how we should live. The words tell us our identity. We are the righteous one of Christ! We are holy. We are pure. Start speaking it over yourself and your loved ones today. Speak it out loud and often. We are righteous. We are holy. We are pure. All because we are in Jesus and He is in us. It is the infinite circle again. We are truly protected from the inside out. With Christ for us, who can be against us?
Stay in the Light and the Love Always,
Eva
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