Devotion Romans 8:37 The Bull In The Ring

Romans 8:37 – No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Way back in the day when I played organized football they had a game called Bull in the Ring. In this game one player was circled by the rest of the team.  Everybody was assigned a number.  The player in the middle was fully ready, fully energized because the coach would call out a number and then the player assigned that number would charge you and do his very best to knock your socks off.  The bull in the ring had better be quick and ready to take the charge.  The charge came from any direction, front, back, or either sides.  The bull must spin fast, get your feet set, and take the charge head on.  If you shrank back, you lost…over and over again. The best bulls gave out as much, or more, than they received.  Looking back it was a very dangerous game, but it taught us the ferocity of the game of football.

Life can be like that.  Sometimes so many things can come at us at once.  So many life events can charge us, one after another, from different directions and all wanting to knock us head over heels and right out of the game.  Family, in our own strength this game of life can be overwhelming.  The participants in this game of life must be prepared, or they will be bowled over.  They will be overwhelmed.  They will feel like, or may, just check out of the game.  Life, as beautiful and filled with blessings as it is, can sometimes, and for some often, just feel like too much.  We learn early in life that life has some very rough challenges.  We need to be ready.

There is only one way to be ready in this life and in the life to come.  It is to grasp the hand of God who has promised to be the lover of our souls and our refuge during hard times.  Really, our refuge at all times.  God promised no-one a trouble free life (John 16:33).   What He promised us was that if we take His hand, that He offers first, He will take our hand and live with us and will never leave us alone and forgotten.  He will ask us to trade our strength for His.  He will ask us to trust His love and He will daily and continuously envelope us in His love.  As we daily walk in His love and protection our faith grows.  Faith transforms from a theory or a hope to a sure path of life to walk upon.  But no-one who never walks the path knows it is safe and beautiful because they have never been on it.  One must trust God, must trust Jesus, to know the reality of the promises of God.

Here is what I repeat to myself always.  It is the truth about God that keeps me from being a bowled over helpless and battered rag doll.  It is that God is good and that He loves me.  Knowing, not hoping, that God is good and that He loves me will keep me through all of the trials of life.  Since He is good He will always treat me good.  I will not understand the why of the events of life, but I know that my good God always wants the best for me.  And He is able.  And I know that the love of God is with me always.  This God who can only do good because that is His nature also loves me so much that He sent His Son to pay the price for the ugliness of my sins.  His love is so big, so grand, so all-encompassing that it is always present and never exhausted.  The sure knowledge that God is good and that He loves me is how I prepare for life.  It is the Truth that I know above all other truths.   The knocks of life still happen, sometimes coming so quick it can take our breath away, but with a sure knowledge of the goodness and love of God we can get it through it.  Because of Jesus we can move from this life, with all of its blessings and trials, from this life into heaven, where there is no bad health, no more hate or sorrow or tears, but only love and well-being as we live in the very presence of God.

Sometimes we are the bull in the ring.  But really we can only not be completely run over if Jesus is in the ring with us.  With Him we are going to be okay.   With Him we will stand.  With Him we can survive because we know that though we are in the center of the ring we are not the bull, we are the child of the bull, and our Savior and Lord has already won the game.  Family, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” (Ephesians 6:10)  We are weak, but He is strong.  Walk in the awareness of His goodness and love.  Praise God always and continuously, not for His sake, but for ours.  He loves us and always wants only the best for us.  Praise God!  Praise God!  Praise God!

Please pray for my family.  Yesterday my brother found his very best friend dead. This is after he found my nephew (my sister’s youngest) dead two months ago.  Later in the day, yesterday, our mother had a stroke and she is in the hospital in ICU.  Also, I have been out of work and finances are getting very critical.  I want to say that in all these things “God is good and He loves us.”  We will walk in His love and goodness and be blessed in the depths of our souls.  So we are not abandoned waifs, our God is with us.  I merely ask for your prayers that the Lord continue to strengthen and provide for us all, as I know He will.