Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love… & UK Fellowship Friday

When I was 19 years old I went to university for the first time. It was the University Of Dundee, in Scotland – 500 miles away from my parents. Once they had dropped me off with all my bags and finally said goodbye, I went for a walk along the beautiful estuary.

My beautiful view for walking in Dundee!

It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t know a soul in the whole of Dundee, or even Scotland! But very soon after that the thought came to me that it really didn’t matter, because God was right there, and He loves me, so what else do I really need?!

The Bible says that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and as I was thinking about these verses today I realised that they are more deep than I had first thought.

God loves us affectionately

The word for love in the Greek here means affection. I am a mother and would love my children dearly whether they are in a submarine under the sea (depth), or on the moon (height), and even if the Queen told me not to (powers)! God also loves us despite whatever else gets in the way.

God loves us in action

True love is not just a feeling, like we so often get from watching films. It is an action – resulting in patience, kindness and all these other things.

As a mother I might have difficulty expressing some of these action forms of love if my children were on the moon or under the sea, because I’m not actually with them. But God is always with us, so he doesn’t have any problem with that and will love us in action, wherever we are!

God loves us through Christ

Did you notice that it says, ‘Nothing…shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord‘?

God’s love was shown to us in Him sending His only son to die on the cross for us. And the cross means that we can always go to Him for forgiveness and mercy, and sin’s power is forever broken.

Even if you’re not a Christian, God still shows His love to you in this, since you can at any time repent of your sins and ask for forgiveness because of Jesus dying on the cross in your place.

What does it mean for our life?

Confidence – We don’t need to worry about what people think about us, because God loves us so it really doesn’t matter that much!

Security – We don’t need to be afraid or feel lonely because someone who loves us is there with us and looking out for us: we can be secure in His love.

Boldness in prayer – We can be bold to ask whatever we want or need, because God loves to answer our requests.

Hope – We don’t need to be afraid of death because if we are saved we will go to be with the One who loves us. I loved this little story I read:

Mr. Hugh Kennedy, an eminent Christian of Ayr, in Scotland, when he was dying, called for a Bible; but, finding his sight gone, he said, “Turn me to the eight of the Romans, and set my finger at these words, I am persuaded that neither death nor life,” etc. “Now,” said he, “is my finger upon them?” And, when they told him it was, without speaking any more, he said, “Now, God be with you, my children; I have breakfasted with you, and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ this night;” and so departed.

Thankfulness – if everything else goes wrong we can still be thankful that God sent Jesus to die on the cross to  save us, and that we can have eternal life in heaven.

Here is a really cool song which we learned from a video of Jana Alayra, a children’s worship leader in the USA. I’ve copied the words below. By the way if you are looking for new children’s songs, hers are great – simple, Biblical, deep, and fun!