Yesterday we saw the amazing news of total security for the believer in Christ. But maybe you look at your suffering and you wonder, how can God love you when He lets this happen?
Our Psalmist wrestles with this in Psalm 43. Graciously God gives us the words to say when we feel like this, we can say (or sing), “why have you rejected me?” That’s what it feels like God. It feels like you’re against me and not for me. After pouring out his complaint to God, the psalmist does something very wise – he talks to himself.
Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones famously said that most of our problems in life come from listening to ourselves rather than talking to ourselves. The psalmist tells himself to “hope in God” because God is his salvation. If the psalmist could do this some 1000 years before Christ, how much more can we do it 2000 years after Christ came into this world. We know God loves us so much that He actually rejected his own Son instead of us, so that we could be accepted. We know his salvation. Remember what we saw yesterday – nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. When you’re tempted to question God’s unfailing love, tell Him, and then give yourself a talking to! Tell yourself to hope in God and to know His love shown at the cross. Allow the cross, and not your circumstances, to define His love.
But as Paul speaks of God’s unfailing love, he looks a different way, his concern is about his fellow Israelite. What about the promises God made to His people Israel? In Romans 9-11 Paul wrestles with this question. Here in chapter 9 he assures us that God’s Word has not failed (9:6) because the true Israel is not those who are physically descended from Abraham, but those who have a faith like Abraham, including those from a Gentile background. God’s salvation plan always included the Gentiles, remember God’s promise to Abraham was that through one of His descendants God would bring blessing to all nations (Genesis 12:3).
God’s Word has not failed, and His Word to us that nothing can separate us from His love for us in Christ Jesus will not fail. Wonderfully, Paul reassures us that it’s not about our choice, but God’s. If you’re someone who loves God, it’s because He has chosen to have mercy on you! You didn’t deserve it any more than I did, but God is so kind that He lavishes His love on those who don’t deserve it. That doesn’t make us proud, but prayerful, thankful for our own security and crying out to God, longing that He would have mercy on others and as we’ll see in Romans 10, holding out God’s Word to them.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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