The inspired Apostle Paul declared: “If God is for us, who can be against us?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Romans 8:31, 35, 36)
It doesn’t take one long to realize why this world is sometimes called a “valley of sorrows” or a “vale of tears.” Too often, where we look, we see sadness, heartache, and disappointments. And sometimes the tears that fall are our tears. By no means are Christians exempt from the trials and troubles of this life. When the Apostle Paul mentioned things like “persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword,” he wasn’t dramatizing what some Christians might have to endure for their faith. They were enduring such trials!
Can you imagine the doubts that must have been plaguing their hearts and minds? “Maybe I should just give Christ up, deny Him, renounce Him. Life might be a lot less stressful. I want to be happy, not ‘persecuted.’”
Perhaps the ordeals are different in our day and age, but the question still arises, “Does it pay to be a Christian?”
St. Paul’s answer is: Look to the cross!
Someone once said, “If we truly want to go on being Christians, we need to close our eyes and open our ears” (Martin Luther).
And the Bible relates: “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
At times it may seem as if life is unfair; it may seem as if God doesn’t care; it may seem as if God isn’t in control. But the cross that we bear is still there and so is the sight of Calvary’s cross!
The cross is our comfort through all the trials and troubles of this life. The cross assures us that we, who “are considered as sheep to be slaughtered,” have God’s own promise: “I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (from Jeremiah 29: 11).
So regardless of what today or tomorrow may bring, the cross makes it all worthwhile because it declares what God has done for us through Christ’s death and resurrection that indeed gives us life; that gives us victory. After all, if God is for us, who can be against us? That’s our comfort and, in fact, our joy.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month’s contributor is The Rev. Dean Rudloff, pastor of Life In Christ Lutheran Church affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
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