GOD IS FOR US

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 19, 6 February 1937, Page 10

GOD IS FOR US

"if God be for us who can be against us?" — ^Romans viii. 31. In these Fords we have a challenging question struck out of the confident assurance that God is for us. That confident assurance is my subject: God is for us. There is in the world to-day a wide-spread hunger for such assurance. Many are asking, "Can we be sure of God? It would be too dreadful to think that fie is against us. Can We b© certain that He is for us?" This yeaa-ning is shared ieVen by people who despairingly say, "God is neutral. He does nothing, does not seeua to care," They have moments when, in the grip of fear or under the burdeu of a great sorrow, they seek the conscious presence gnd help of God. No one is uniformly indifferenb to God. No man is consistently satisfied with what this world can do for hirn or with the progress he can make on hia own account. The worldly code that .works with pleasures and possessions and the so-called good things of life gives mixed and contradictory results ; yet so long as .these things seem to be for .us we persist with great aonfidence. But a time comes when life in such terms cannot be made to signify anything and we aJe startled in finding the code to he wrong. It is a good finding. Ta be forced to admit that our interpretation of life is cqnfusion is a great gain. Ready for a Faith. A mood of dark distress may be nearer a Christian liope than cheerful, well-fed, unthinkjng unsatisfaction with our life. Hence the gain of days ljke our own, when so many of our seeming certainties and secnrities have come to grief amid a liorror of thick blackness. We are ready for a faith that will sustain us, a faith that will act as a guiding raaster light, a faith that will satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts, That very readiness, however, has its perils; it may be exploited _ by novelties and myths and spcculationa not of the divjne order which belongs to faith. Nevertheless jt is a sign that we need something more than can be found by vague seeking or clever doubting. The clever doubter has no gospel. More than anything else we need a victorious faith, a faith that W^1 deliver us from our perplexity and despair, ous inertia, and driftingj a faith that will make life worth whlle and interpret the whole scheme of things as shot through with God's co-operation for good. Can we have such a faith? Is is available for average men and women in every day life with all its varied circumstances or its dull monotony?. Can those who are now saying "All things axe against me" have their whole view of life changed hy the conviction that God is for them, so that they will triumphantly exclaim, "If God be for me, who or what can be against me?" Can such assurance come to Bufferers in sickness, bereavement, and poverty? Can bonny fighters, fighting a haxd battle, make it their slogan and find strength therein? Is it a faith, an assurance for all? On the Side of the Distressed. According to the Scriptures, if God is on any side, He is on the side of the distressed. He is the God of the hunt•sd, the hard hit, the down and out, anu those who though not down are a long way out. He stands perpetually on tho side of the weak. Men even find it a good world to be hunted in, if God is on their side. The Apostle could exclaim, "I take pleasure in distresses." This servant of Christ is an optimist with both eyes open. He calls to the hostile universe to do its worst and as stroke after stroke falls he evolves strophe after strophe of the hymn of Divine help. The world is still an evil dominion and life is not lesis than before a burden and a sorrow, and he is well aware that in the ordinary estimate, what he says seems almos't an absurdity. Unless it 'is seen as an illumination it mu'st seem' an absurdity. But what he calls the reconciliation in Christ turns it from an absurd and incredible thing into a triumphant certainty. As long as we are at enmity with God, every thing is against ns; once we are at peace with Him all things work together for our good. There is no arguing with such a eertainty, Eitber you simply don't believe it or you recognise it as the Word of God. It is indeed the Word of God in Jesus Christ. God is revealed in Him. We see in Him beyond any doubt what God is like, A God of love, of truth, of power. In Christ God reveals Himself

in a way we can underatand. There may be many more things to learn about God, than could be revealed in the earthly life of J esus, but to all eternity we shall never need to learn any more of what He fundamentally and essentially is — God for us, bearing the burden of our sins, and rnaking Atonement on the Cross; God for us, giving our lives a purpose and working by His Holy Spirit to bring all things into line with that purpose; God for us, guiding, strengthening, upholding and preparing us for a greater, fuller life and a nobler service. What an assurance to have! A Fadth That Works. Thousads of people in these times are finding this a faith that works. If you. want to know how much God loves you and what in Jesus Christ He underwent to win your ocnfidence and enable you to live out your days in the sunshine of His mere y, lift your eyes to the Cross. Take your courage in both hands, put all pride away, aud cast yourself upon the love of God, which is in Christ Jesuls our Lord. Will you do thatf In this perplexing world we must live by some kind of assurance, Why not the highest and best, since the life and death of the Lord Jesns have proved it to be true? And simple trust in Him brings the aslsurance that God is for ua and, "If God be for us who can ,be against us?" "I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise, Assured alone that life and death His mercy underlies. I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air, I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care." This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, our absolute assurance that in Christ Jesus GOD IS FOE US.