NOTHING - EVER

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, 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. (Romans 8:38-39 TLB)

Separation occurs wherever there is a point of some type of parting. When I wash clothes, I 'separate' them into stacks of dark, medium, and light colors. Why? Those darker ones have the potential of causing me a great deal of extra work if they get in with the lighter ones because they can actually leave stains on the lighter ones. It makes sense to separate them into these piles because of the potential of one to affect the other in a negative way. I have been at some homes of people where even the cans of food are stacked neatly in rows of whatever is contained within those cans. This may give them an indication when they need to buy more corn or peas, but in my estimation, a stack of canned veggies, whatever they may be is just fine! They all get used up and I know where they are when I need to find them - if I don't have peas, I eat corn! While it makes sense to live with certain 'separations' in our lives, there are times I think we feel like we need to 'separate' some of our emotions, actions, or even influences in life from our relationship with God. The truth is that "NOTHING" should separate us from God's attentive and caring love!

We know the big stuff shouldn't and won't separate us from his love, like the actions of the devil in our world, or the finality of death on our human form. Yet, I wonder if we also realize that no fear should ever cause a separation, nor worry any deviation from remaining consistently engaged in closeness of relationship with him? Like it or not, our emotions can (and will) separate us from God's protective closeness if we allow them to drive a wedge in between us. Worries have a way of causing us to begin to spend a ton of thought and effort on ways to solve whatever issue is bringing that set of worries into our lives. We spin and spin, attempting to find a solution - all the while that spinning is taking us further and further away from the solution - Christ! We might think we are just helping God take care of whatever is leading to this set of worries and woes, but in reality we are allowing them to drive us to a point of separation - we are forgetting that God's love "overrides" any set of present or future worries. If we remain connected to him, the worries begin be rightly dealt with by the one who has all the solutions for whatever it is in the present or future that may give us this sense of emotional unease. 

A whole lot of things attempt to steal our joy in life, separating us from God's peace and his presence. We must take a stand against all these 'separating forces' - for scripture declares solidly that NOTHING shall EVER be able to separate us from his love. That doesn't mean NOTHING will EVER try to do so, but we can stand on the truth that as long as our eyes are firmly fixed on him, nothing shall ever be able to bring any degree of separation from his love and care. Just sayin!