Mulling It Over: Romans 8 - Part 1

This week I want to start my Mulling It Over series where we will be taking a passage of scripture and move through it slowly. The idea of ruminating on something is likened to a cow chewing on its cud. Not a pleasant thought, but for the cow it aids in the digestion process. For us ruminating on a passage gives us time to think about it and digest what it is saying. It also allows the Holy Spirit to speak to us through His word and that is part of what enables us to become more Christ like. Obviously, we have to be willing to do the listening and participate in what the Spirit wants to accomplish in our lives. I believe that is best done at a slow, deliberate pace.

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I recently was directed back to Romans 8. It is a chapter packed full of God’s promises and gives us so many tools to use as we go about our daily lives.

“1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death”

— Romans 8:1-2 (NASB 1995)

If you have been through one of my Mulling It Over series before, then you know I like to take these passages apart verse by verse. Seeing as there is so much in this passage, I feel it important to look at it in small bite sized snippets. We are serving finger foods here, not a whole roast beef dinner. But hopefully when we are finished you will feel like you have eaten a meal prepared by the King’s very own chefs.

Therefore there -

In order to understand what the Therefore is there for, we must look back at chapter seven. There is one verse that I think sums up the section that is being referred to (7:14-25).

“18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”

— Romans 7:18 (NASB 1995)

This passage in chapter 7 is referring to the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit. More specifically, to the Law of God, which is Spiritual, and the flesh which is sinful. Can’t we all concur with the Apostle Paul in this struggle? What sort of struggle would it be if we didn’t have the Holy Spirit? We would go about our business, not really giving a thought for the struggle that could have been.

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When we allowed Jesus to put His seal on our hearts the struggle became real. Suddenly we find our flesh wanting all manner of things that aren’t good or godly. Day in and day out we fight this battle of flesh, not because we are ungodly, but because we are His and we are meant to be righteous, and righteous we are because of His blood that covers all our sin, but we still live in this earthen vessel.

“25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

— Romans 7:25 (NASB 1995)

Knowing this is the struggle all Christ followers will endure, we come to verse 1 of chapter 8, and now we know what the Therefore is there for.

…is now…

The word now speaks of time. The time is not future and it is not past. It is today, this morning, this hour, this moment. It refers to what we now know because of what was referred to in the previous chapter.

…no condemnation…

What could be more beautiful and life giving that those two words? This is a promise. The condemnation that we could be under because we know the law of God, the spiritual reality, yet our physical reality binds us to this flesh. How is it that a Holy God would not condemn us, since we continue to struggle against sin.

…for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Oh the blessing that is ours, because we are His and He is ours. We are not condemned because we are in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be in Him? It means that we live with Him, abide, dwell, invest and put all our heart’s trust in who He is and what He has done for us on the cross and in the refrain, “Up from the grave He arose…”

Now we come to the reason:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus….

We are no longer under the law of death as the physical Israelites were as they lived and moved across the wilderness, trying to adhere to a system of weights and blood balances that they could never completely live up to. We are under a new law: the law of the Spirit of life. This is only available through our Lord and savior, and by it He -

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…has set your free from the law of sin and death.

Blessing upon blessing. Mercy upon mercy. We were under the law of sin and death, but now we are under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. I have to really think about this and ask myself, am I still living as one in the wilderness continually looking back to my “Egypt”, wishing I could go back, longing for the comfort of my sin, or am I a new creation forged by His blood and released into a Promised land of freedom and joy?

Until next time dwell in His promised land, that place where you are not under condemnation, but lavishly loved.

My Prayers, His Groanings

We are going to dive back into Romans chapter 8. This next section of the chapter is labeled “Our Victory in Christ.” I’m thinking this is something we all need to hear right now, especially in the midst of our current situation. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I know I am daily struggling with the flesh; feeling extremely tired, discouraged and unmotivated.

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I found an article that I would like to share that makes a lot of sense. The main point of the article is that we are all grieving. We often think that grief is only something felt when someone dies, but the reality is that every change we go through can proffer some sort of grief, even the good changes. The last few months have been fraught with changes. Many have lost their jobs. All of us have lost the normal routines we had of children going to school and taking ourselves to work or to college. We can’t go shopping or thrifting, to movies or sporting events. We can’t even get together with our families and friends. Every Sunday, churches stand empty. We can’t even go to the grocery store without wondering if we will too will become another statistic. All these changes have put each one of us into a place of grief. For more details read this article by Robert Weiss, PhD, MSW titled, COVID-19 and the Grief Process.

Let’s take a look at the next two verses of Romans 8.

“26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

— Romans 8:26-27 (NASB)

In the same way…

We have to pause for a moment and ask ourselves what this phrase is referring to. Looking at Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary gives some insight. He says that this refers to the previous privileges Christians were given, that of being an heir or being adopted by God and that of being redeemed by God. What follows are several more privileges we have.

…the Spirit also helps our weaknesses…

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Obviously we have many weaknesses. As I spoke of in the preceding paragraphs, we are dealing with our flesh and this idea of grief on a regular basis. These particular verses are referring to our weaknesses in prayer. Who, as a Christ follower, doesn’t struggle with prayer? Whether it is actually doing it at all, or doing it regularly, or spending very much time doing it, we all struggle to have a regular, consistent prayer life. From these verses, it would appear that even a pillar of the faith like Paul struggled with prayer. What is this weakness we struggle with?

…for we do not know how to pray as we should…

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Do you have this problem? I sure do. I can’t tell you how often I feel like I need to pray, but then, when I actually start praying I am at a loss for words. I don’t know how to pray for certain situations, or people, not for a lack of understanding, but for a lack of vocabulary. How do I tell God I want this person I love so much to come to Him? I don’t even know where to begin or how to pray, except to acknowledge they need Him. In our current circumstances of course we want to pray for the safety of family and friends; for health care workers and other essential people like the clerks at the grocery stores, but where do we even begin.

My spouse has this prayer that we now laugh about, but in reality it makes a lot of sense. When we were going through an especially difficult time with our younger daughter we would pray together. While I would launch into several minutes of beseeching the Lord and praying scripture, my husband would just pray, “Clean up in Aisle 7, Lord!” It was his true, heart felt prayer and probably just as meaningful to God as my own wordy prayer.

The point is, we often don’t know how to pray, but this is the beautiful part; we don’t have to.

…but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings to deep for words…

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This is an amazing truth. If we are in Christ, and we have His Spirit in us, He is praying for us. I don’t know how that makes you feel, but it is an overwhelming idea to me. This almighty, all powerful being, who created us from the dust of the earth prays for us. But, that is not all. He prays for us with such depth of feeling that it turns into actual groanings, rather than words.

…and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is…

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Who is the one who searches our hearts? God, the Father. He is the one searching to see what our desires are and where are prayers are coming from. He also is the one who knows what the mind of the Spirit is. It is the Spirit who is sorting out our prayers. He is the one who filters our requests showing what is in accordance with God’s will and what is from our will. He is like the farmer on the threshing floor, winnowing the grain to separate the wheat from the chaff. The Father trusts the Spirit, knowing that His mind is in accord with His own.

…because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

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We need to face reality here. Our prayers are not always pure. We are not always operating with God’s interests in mind. I know that many of my prayers have been wrought out of my own selfish desire to not have trouble or difficulties in my life. I also know that I often pray that others, the objects of my prayers, will not suffer too much, because I also don’t want to suffer. The problem with that is, I may not be praying for God’s will in their lives. I might want them to be saved, but I don’t want it to hurt. I might want them to suffer, but not so much that I suffer as well. I believe the Holy Spirit is essential in making our prayers, God worthy.

I am not saying that we have to pray a certain way. As I shared earlier a prayer like, “Clean up in Aisle 7,” is just as pure and viable as the prayer that is filled with scripture and heart felt tears. What I think is important is that we approach prayer with the knowledge the Holy Spirit is going to be involved, so why not just be honest. God can handle our honesty.

The Holy Spirit is going to intercede for us, according to the will of God, not according to our will. While I think it is important to be “real” when we are praying, I also think we need to get to the point where we really do want God’s will more than anything. This is not an easy place to get to, but true, life changing prayer is going to revolve around the statement Jesus made in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“...Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

— Luke 22:42 (NASB)

Traits of a Godly Person: An Introduction - Becoming Like a Child

It is time that I get back to regularly posting on my Faith page. I apologize for the hiatus. Faith posts are more difficult for me to write, because I want to be accurate, according to Scripture, as well as sharing information that is encouraging. This often requires a quiet place to write and the time to do it.

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As a writer of fiction, I can get into a groove of writing a scene or dialogue and conquer pages without even blinking an eye, but as all authors know, those times are infrequent. Writing is a discipline, just like going to the gym, watching what you eat and spending time in God’s word. As I have confessed previously, I am not a very disciplined person. That may be why I don’t have anything published yet. Yes, I do blog on a regular basis and that is a form of published writing, however, in the writing to publish realm it only counts as a way to build a following and a way to practice writing. That is okay. I need all the practice I can get, and you would be surprised how much better my fiction writing is, because I regularly write this blog. That’s a big shout out to all of you who read my blog, because you keep me writing. Thank you.

This morning my older daughter and I went to the gym. It has been a while since we have gone, so as hard as it was, I felt good afterwards. We didn’t get overly zealous, just did a fifteen minute walk on the treadmill, a few weight machines and some stretching. Still, it was a choice to do something good.

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As I was pondering good choices after I got back and took a shower, I thought about my last Mulling It Over series in 2 Peter 1:1-11. I had suggested that perhaps further study into each of the characteristics listed in that set of verses would be a good idea. I was about to begin a few other tasks after breakfast, when it struck me to sit down and do my devotions. I am sporadic at best, and I usually reach for Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest. You might think me strange, but this is the only devotional I have been using for, lets see, the date inside the book says my hubby gave it to me Christmas of 2007, so over eleven years.

The title of today’s devotional was, The Habit of Having No Habits. You can read it in full by clicking on the title. You can see that I actually read the wrong day…or did I? If you believe in an Almighty Creator, who is able to control all of our circumstances, then you will probably agree with me, that God could have easily placed May 12th in front of my face rather than May 13th…or it could just be the dementia setting in. Ha, ha.

If you read the devotional you will see Oswald talking about the habit of becoming godly. When we first become a Christian, many of our habits may have to change and we purposefully have to make choices to change them. It is when those habits no longer have to be thought about or fought against, that our lives have become, as Oswald says, “…the simple life of a child.” It is with this in mind, that I want to start this new series.

Rebecca Trumbull Photography

Rebecca Trumbull Photography

Rebecca Trumbull Photography

When we take the time to look at children, we can see, generally they live without a care in the world. They trust their parents to take care of them. If they are afraid, they know they can go to their parents and be reassured. Children are full of curiosity, innocence and joy. Sure, they have their moments, but don’t we all?There are references in the Bible to children and becoming like a child, revealing a special fondness our Creator has for these miniature humans.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;
6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

— Matthew 18:1-6 (NASB)

I would love to go into a detailed description of the place of torment I believe God has for predators of children, but I’ll save that for a fiction piece. Make no mistake, what Christ says in these verses is of primary importance. We cannot become Christians if we do not become like little children. God is also a God of justice and those who lead little children astray will be subject to an Almighty God’s wrath.

You might be wondering what all of this has to do with the traits of a Godly person. If we do not become like a child, as Christ said, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I also believe that it is only in becoming like a child that we are able to obtain these traits of God, traits like love, joy, peace, brotherly kindness, etc.

A child has a large ability to believe, and belief is key, both in becoming a child of God and in walking in His spirit. Ask a four year old if he believes in Santa Clause, unicorns, or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. They believe these things because we as parents invite them in to a fantastic world of imagination and possibility. In the same way our loving Creator invites us in to a world of unfailing love, perfect peace and streets paved with gold.

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Becoming adults, we think we are doing ourselves a favor by putting aside our imaginings and dreams, but we only do ourselves a disservice. Obviously, only a chosen few have had the privilege to see God. The rest of us must leave his appearance to our imaginations. Using our imaginations does not make God any less real, in fact, the ability to believe who He says He is, and what He says He can do, takes a bit of imagining, but who gave us this ability? He did, and He did it so that we could come to know Him more fully, so that we could come into His presence and experience all that He tells us in His word.

As we begin to look at these Godly traits over the next few weeks and perhaps months, try to revisit the feelings and thoughts you had as a child, when you looked forward to Christmas morning, a vacation or a surprise. Look with anticipation and joy at what God will teach you, and me, with trust in His very best for us.