Ten Spiritual Solutions from Romans Eight
Illustration: "Here’s the scenario," the instructor announced to his class of novice truck drivers. "You’re in an 18-wheeler with a heavy load, barreling down a mountainous two-lane highway. Ed, your co-driver, is asleep. There are six trucks behind you, and as you come over the top of a hill, they pull out beside you to pass. Suddenly, you see several trucks coming in the opposite direction, pulling into your lane to pass. What did you do?"
"That’s simple," a student called out. "I’d wake up Ed."
"Why would you do that?" asked the instructor.
"Because," replied the student, "Ed ain’t never seen a truck wreck like this before!"
Contributed by Donald Ballar, Reader’s Digest.
Please do not wait for the wreck until something can be done to prevent a tragedy from happening. Here are ten solutions that we can apply as preventative measures before an accident happens.
Romans 8:1-38
1. DEFENSE FOR ACCUSATIONS - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:1 to teach people how to defend themselves against accusations, criticisms and insinuations of perpetual guilt and worthlessness. Paul wrote, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." Ask the Lord to give you the wisdom to know how to assure people of their blameless status through the complete work of Christ’s forgiveness, redemption and propitiation.
2. SPIRITUAL OVERCOMING - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:3 to teach people that what our fleshly efforts could not accomplish in fulfilling the demands of the law and life, the Holy Spirit helps us subdue, overcome and over power. Paul wrote, "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by condemning sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." Ask the Lord to help you teach people who feel powerless to overcome their anger, jealousy, bitterness, feelings of frustration, anxiety, worry, fear, resentment, shame, guilt or ordinary fleshly struggles, to find overcoming power through the Holy Spirit and God’s word.
3. CONQUERING TEMPTATIONS - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:6,7 to teach people that the use of sense and reasons without the controlling power of the Spirit is a futile way to try to conquer temptation and evil. Paul wrote, "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile toward God." Ask the Lord to help you show people how they can overcome all kinds of evil and sinister temptations that are so commonly given into by the majority of people.
4. SPIRITUAL BUOYANCE - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:10 to teach people what to do when others try to cast dispersions, shame and blame on them. Paul wrote, "But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness." Ask the Lord to show you how to buoy Christians up with a greater realization of all the rich resources that they enjoy through the imputed righteousness of Christ.
5. INTERCESSION FOR WEAKNESS - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:26,27 to teach people what they should do when they are feeling weak, fearful or inadequate. Paul wrote, "In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will." Ask the Lord to show you how to encourage people with the assurance that the Holy Spirit is able to intercede, deliver and support people during any difficulty with Christ’s all sufficient grace.
6. NEGATIVES TURNED TO POSITIVES - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:28 to teach people how God can turn tough times, uncertain feelings and adversity into something great! Paul wrote, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Ask the Lord to help you show people how the Lord works His sovereign wonders in bringing all kinds of factors together for those who love God and are obedient to His will.
7. TRANSFORMATION - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:29 to teach people how God can help make us more like Christ. Paul wrote, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Ask the Lord to help you teach people how the Spirit helps transform us into Christ’s image, attitude, actions, character qualities and mature perspective.
8. RESOURCES PROMISED - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:32 to teach people what to do when they lack resources to accomplish their responsibilities. Paul wrote, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also along with him, graciously give us ALL THINGS!" Ask the Lord to use this precious promise to assure people that God will supply them with everything they need to accomplish His purposes for them.
9. FRUSTRATIONS RELIEVED - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:35-37 to teach people what they should do when they feel frustrated, discouraged or overwhelmed by life’s stresses. Paul wrote, "Nothing will be able to separate you from the love of Christ, including suffering, affliction, tribulation, calamity, distress, persecution, hunger, poverty, peril or sword. You are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Ask God to show you how to connect people to Christ’s over powering care and all concerning love.
10. LOVING RESPONSES - The Holy Spirit uses Romans 8:38,39 to teach people how they should respond to the attacks from sinister spiritual forces that cause them to feel so much emotional, physical, and mental anguish. Paul wrote, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Ask God to help you persuade people of blessing of being intimate with Christ’s omnipresent power, truth, wisdom, sufficiency, and inseparable love.
