Reading 12: God is for us

St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:15 that God’s Spirit has made us Children of God. He continues to give us the Good News of what this means.

Sometimes we hear of the tragedy that either a parent or an adult child has disowned the other. It may be because one cannot bring himself to forgive the other. It may be that their lives have become incompatible. Unlike in human relationships, we can never be separated from our Heavenly Father’s love (Romans 8:38-39).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his disciples to pray and encouraged his disciples to, “Ask, and it will be given you…” yet, sometimes we don’t know what to pray. Things happen too fast; our emotions can cause us to freeze. When we are in need of prayer, we can know that God’s Holy Spirit is already praying for us (Romans 8:26) and that Jesus Christ himself is interceding for us. (Romans 8:34) God loves us so much that having our needs met does not depend on our own eloquence.

Recall a time when you desperately needed to pray, but didn’t know how to ask. Be thankful that you were not left out on your own.

O Lord, we are thankful that you give us gifts that exceed our imaginations, and love us in spite of our shortcomings. Amen.

–Janet Peace Meisenbach is a former lay member of NC Synod’s Book of Faith Task Force. She was a Luther League Caravaner and a Youth Missioner for the LCA’s Board of American Missions. She has held active membership at Emmanuel, High Point; Lutheran Church of the Epiphany, Winston-Salem; Westminster Lutheran (in California); and now Macedonia, Burlington.