Nougat 14

We say it all the time, but are we really convinced? Here’s today’s Holy Nougat

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:38‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We know and believe many things, including some that are not factual. But when we are convinced, it means that we did our own fact check and what we discovered was proof to sustain our beliefs. ‘I’m convinced’ or ‘I’m persuaded’ are generally responses to a negatively framed challenge to our facts.

Among believers, both conviction and persuasive can be the result of personal (painful) experiences. Thus our conviction would have been undergirded by the ‘fact’ of what we (or someone we know) have undergone – for ourselves. In that case, we are persuaded by ‘indisputable’ fact and are now resolute in what we know and believe, having been tested and tried and overcome.

When we look at the author of this nougat it is possible that we recall the context – Paul wrote to the church in Rome. Rome was the HQ of the empire; and though cosmopolitan, it was also a city of the educated, legal-minded and unbelievers. And as a Roman citizen, Saul, the pre-converted Paul, had petitioned the Roman and the Jewish leaders. He wanted them to authorize him so he could persecute the Jesus followers. Now he’d become the chief advocate of the faith he mocked.

It was imperative that he established a ‘convincing argument’ for those with whom he communicated. He knew how their system worked. So he was building a ‘legal’ argument, complete with facts based on his own experience. That is – His What. The Acts of the Apostles is full of Paul’s experiences; both negative and positive. And most outstanding for Saul-Paul was God’s love that convicted him en route his new job – to hunt down and kill the people of the way. Paul knew that all his other experiences paled in comparison to God’s love for him. So when he faced and overcame the odds of surviving some of the most horrendous persecution. He’d been through the fire and came out as more than a conqueror.

And because of his conviction, Paul sought to tell the new believers; Don’t lose hope. There’s a bigger plus than the minuses. For, having been through it all he was fully convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt, ”that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”

During our own trials; do we see God’s love? Are we truly convinced, not about God seeing us through, but of God’s overwhelming, never-ending love of God in the midst of our stress? For that’s what strengthens our conviction.

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May all we seek be found in Christ