What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
– Romans 8:31–39
I feel like I don’t need to say anything else like this is stunning. Just hear these words from God over your life today.
Romans 8:31–39 Teaches Us that God is For Us
If he is for you, then nothing can stand against you. He’s given his Son for you. And not just in the past. Jesus, the risen Son of God right now is at the right hand of God interceding for you. And nothing in this world can separate you from his love for you. Not tribulation, not distress. Nothing that you are facing in your life can separate you from his love. And not only nothing can separate you from his love, but nothing can take away the fact that you are a conqueror today through him who loves you. You are not defeated. You are a victor in Jesus.
Whatever trial, or tribulation you are facing, you know that in the end you win by the power of Jesus in you and the power of God’s love for you that nothing in this world can ever separate you from. Oh God, we praise you for Romans 8:31–39. We praise you, Holy Spirit, for inspiring Paul to write these words in a way that thousands of years later in this moment, you would encourage our hearts with them amidst whatever we’re walking through. God, we praise you for being for us, for all who trust in you for being, for us, with us. Jesus, for interceding for us, and for promising to provide us today with everything we need all day long. We love living in your love for us.
Romans 8:31–39 Teaches Us We Are Forever Secure in God’s Embrace
So help us today, especially where there is any fear, anxiety, worry, shame, guilt, or despair. God, we pray that you would overcome all of these things in us by the power of your love for us with peace and joy, and patience, and trust, confidence, hope in who you are and how much you love us, and how, just as the verses right before this in Romans 8 say you are, lovingly working everything in our lives together for our good and your glory.
Oh God, we praise you for Romans 8, and we pray that the nations would know Romans 8. We pray that you’d use our lives to spread Romans 8 around us today this kind of hope and joy, and love and peace. Help us to spread the good news of Romans 8 to others today. That they might trust in you. To brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling in different ways that they might know they’re more than conquerors.
Prayer for the Acheron People
And God, for people who’ve never heard this. For the Acheron people of Sudan where there has been a church that has started. God, please strengthen that small group of believers among the Acheron with the joy and peace and hope and confidence of Romans 8:31–39. And bless them for the spread of the gospel to more Muslim Acheron in Sudan, that the gospel might be known by every Acheron in Sudan, and the church might be established and that it might multiply. Oh God, for the spread of Romans 8:31–39, love to the nations. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name. In the name of the one who’s interceding for us even right now. In His name, we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
