March 29. As sure as God's love for his own son. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all,

how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 832. God strips every pain of its destructive power. You must believe

this, or you will not thrive, or perhaps even survive as a Christian in the pressures and temptations

of modern life.

There is so much pain, so many setbacks and discouragements,

so many controversies and pressures.

I do not know where I would turn

if I did not believe that Almighty God

is taking every setback and every discouragement and every

controversy and every pressure and every pain and stripping it of its destructive power

and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God.

Listen to Paul's astonishing words in 1 Corinthians 3, 21 to 23. All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollus or Cephas or the world or life or death,

or the present or the future, all are yours.

And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

The world is ours. Life is ours. Death is ours. Which I take to mean, God reigns so supremely on behalf of his elect,

that everything which faces us in a lifetime of obedience and ministry

will be subdued by the mighty hand of God

and made the servant of our holiness and our everlasting joy in God.

If God is for us, and if God is God, then it is true that nothing can succeed against us.

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will infallibly and freely with him,

give us all things, all things, the world, life, death, and God himself.

Romans 832 is a precious friend.

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