Nothing Snatched Me From The Father’s Hand

Monday, July 15, 2013     Nothing Snatched Me From The Father’s Hand

“No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:39

It has been my experience in life that we are all in one of three places:  in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or heading for a crisis. Sometimes a crisis can be life altering. Henry Blackaby, in his book, Experiencing God, says these experiences in life are always accompanied by a crisis of belief because how we respond to the challenges reveals what we truly believe about the character of God.

When confronted with a crisis, too often Christians are prone to worry that God is punishing them. The Apostle Paul’s powerful affirmation in Romans 8:34-39 should dispel any such notions. Every action God takes is motivated by His great love for us, and our relationship with God has been established by the faithfulness of Jesus. The promise of God is that He is using every circumstance in our lives for His good purpose of transforming us to become like Christ. (Romans 8:28-29) Although it may take us a good deal of time to understand how God is using certain circumstances for good in our lives, nevertheless, God is at work in us. (Philippians 2:13) Our challenges in life may be different, but the reality of God’s love for us is unchanging.

I have several ‘go-to’ passages in the Bible that I read and ponder frequently. These passages insure that my faith is grounded completely in God’s grace and His acceptance of me in Jesus. The affirmation in Romans 8:34-39 of God’s refusal to be separated from me, in any circumstances, for any reason, is one of those passages. Jesus’ promise that he has me, safely and securely, in his hand for all eternity is another: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:27-30).

The last year of my life has been a steady progression of change. Now we get to live in the cool mountain air during the summer, which is a nice change from the temperature in the high nineties, with matching humidly, we left behind. But we also left behind dear friends that we miss. Work weeks averaging sixty plus hours have been replaced with a more relaxed pace with many new opportunities to explore God’s world. But it has been very difficult filling the void on Sunday mornings when I got to proclaim the Good News of Jesus every week. Now my wife has added cancer survivor to her resume and while we rejoice in that word survivor, the journey was frightening. Now there is a scar down the center of my chest from bypass surgery that ever reminds me of the preciousness of life; but again, the journey from onset to victory had many frightening moments.

Even so, through it all, nothing snatched me from the Father’s hand; nothing separated me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior.

Hallelujah and Amen.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.