Unit 2, lesson 4: Secure in His Love
Lesson Passages: Romans 5:6-8; 8:28-39
Will God ever give up on you? The truth is, we may give up on ourselves, but God will never give up on us. He didn’t start a work to leave it unfinished. Christ will complete the work that He started in us. He will see us through trials and help us through periods of sinfulness. We may attempt to leave Him, but His Spirit will draw us back to where we need to be. What a safety net we have to live out the Christian life! We are not afraid of failure; Christ will restore us. We are not afraid of circumstances; Christ is with us through them.
Hopefully this lesson has corrected some faulty views of God that you have encountered in your life. We need a biblical understanding of God’s love and faithfulness to us. He will never cut us loose when we are crippled, but He will always “touch the void” in our lives.
HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?
God loves us, and that means He will never give up on us. God saw us at our worst, and better than that He chose us when we were at our worst. Why would he stop loving us after He has remade us into a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17)? We must be convinced that God is not against us. You may have lost your job or had a family member discover cancer. The money may have run out before the month, but trials are not indications of a lack of love on God’s part. In fact, trials often provide some of God’s greatest opportunities to love on His children. The scraped knee is the one the mother kisses! God is on your side.
We stand in the security of knowing that nothing we do will be able to separate us from the love of God. Did you catch the word nothing? Paul made a long list of things that could not separate us from God’s love, but is anything else needed besides the word nothing? Every word Paul gives is merely an illustration of that word. Realizing that nothing we do can separate us from God’s love helps us live in the truth that He will never leave us.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
- Once you are saved, are you always saved? Find scripture to support your answer.
- What difference does the security of the believer make when you face trials in your life? When we mess up and fall short of what we should be?
FOR REFLECTION
- At what times in your life have you felt deserted by God?
October 31st, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Just this week, my wife received an email from Christina Crawley, one of Simeon’s own, who’s in the middle of a mission trip in the country of Rwanda on the continent of Africa.
For this week’s lesson, I asked why is it important for a believer to have security in the knowledge that once saved, always saved. Here is a practical example of why it’s important.
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Dawn,
We are getting ready to begin our second day on the field. The first day was challenging for our team (we divided into two teams) but we managed to led 178 to the Lord. Our group total was 362 for the day. It was challenging for us because of the impact the genocide had on the village we were in. We were not allowed to knock on doors or go into homes and villages, but had to remain in the streets and the market place. Also, we we were not allowed to take photos and some would not give us their names after they received Christ. They are still untrusting because of what they suffered in 1999.
There is also a strong Seventh Day Adventist influence in this village. Many of them believe they must work their way into heaven and were not very receptive to the gift of grace from God. There were many who said they were Christians but did not know if they were heaven. They said because of the bad in the world, they will not know until that day when they die. It is very difficult to disspell their strong beliefs. It seems they have just enough knowledge about the gospel to be dangerous to themselves.
We are returning to the same village today please pray about these two matters. Also pray for the children, I have not seen so many in one small village. There were many in Uganda when I was here two years ago but not like this. There are hundreds of children who followed us everywhere we went.
I have to go now. I will talk to you soon.
Love,
Chris