Have you ever been to the mountains? Anyone ever been rock climbing? If you could choose to climb up or down which would you rather do? Why?
[Take a minute to write down your thoughts :) ]
When I was in college, I took a class that we students called, “Rocks and Ropes.” Of course, since I went to college in Indiana, there weren’t many mountains around, so we went up to the roof of the math and science building. Each of us was given some rope and we were shown how to make a harness with it that would wrap around our mid-section and hold it securely. To the front middle of the harness we attached a clip that we would connect us with the rope that would keep us from falling. One of the instructors wrapped the rope around herself—she would make sure we had the slack we needed and would keep us from falling. Of course, as Tom Williamson would have said, this was all a very interesting, academic project, but when we stepped onto the edge of the roof, with our backs to a 70-foot drop, and the instructor said, “Alright, now just lean way back and step off”—that was a whole different thing! Our lives are whole lot like that—we can only see so far ahead of us, and there are times when we stand on the edge of what feels like a major drop. When we come to the edge of what we know, what should we do? What is amazing about the way students of Jesus Christ face that edge? Our passage offers us some incredible insights into how to live life on the edge.
The first thing that someone often notices about a devoted follower of Jesus Christ is peace. One of the things many people worry about is whether their prayers are heard. What if they don’t have the words? What if they don’t say something just right? Will God get angry or just ignore us? Paul writes, “8:26 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. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” Charles Vaughan tells the story of a grandfather who was walking through his yard when he heard his granddaughter repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like a prayer. He asked her what she was doing. The little girl explained: “I’m praying, but I can’t think of exactly the right words, so I’m just saying all the letters, and God will put them together for me, because He knows what I’m thinking.” That’s right on target. Prayer is not magic—if you say the right words in the right way God will give you what you want. Prayer is about relationship, about expressing the deepest desires of our hearts, about listening to the whisper of God’s voice in our hearts, about being open to God working in us. In fact, there have been times in my life (and maybe your lives too) when I have no words and simply lay my sorrow or joy or longing in God’s hands. Peace comes because we realize that God does indeed search our hearts and knows what we need most. We discover that God wants us to know God better, and that whatever we pray sincerely will be blessed. When Christians have their backs to the edge, we can do so with great peace, for the One who listens to our hearts is the One who loves us.
The second thing someone often notices about a devoted follower of Jesus Christ is power. The little girl praying the alphabet could pray in confidence at least in part because of how close God is and how much God cares. Paul writes in verses 38–39, “38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.” The Latin roots for our word, “convinced,” mean literally “conquer with” and when we grasp this profound truth, we are conquered by the love so deep and so powerful, and become in Paul’s words, “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” We realize that Jesus Christ is not just an historical figure, but someone who comes to each of us, will never leave us, and desires to fill each of us. When we are conquered by Christ’s love, Christ gives conquering power to each of us for whatever we face side-by-side with our Lord.
But if we peel away the peace and the power from Christians, we find something even more amazing underneath—purpose. Paul writes in verse 28, “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.” We like the first part of this and hear it quoted all the time, “All things work together for good,” but how often we forget the second part of this, “who have been called according to his purpose.” As this and verse 29 suggests, God is at work in us so that we might be shaped and formed “to the likeness of his Son…” That’s God’s purpose! It’s not about what we want, but about what God wants. We have God’s indescribably peace and unbeatable power only to the degree we make ourselves available to God’s purpose. Rebecca St. James sings these words
To be like You is what I want,
Lord, to be like You is what I ask for
To be like You is what I am longing for
‘Cause at the end of the day
This is what will remain.
To love like You is what I want,
Lord, to love like You
To love like You is what I am longing for
‘Cause at the end of the day
This is what will remain.
You are what I want
Lord, you are what I ask for
You are what I’m longing for
‘Cause at the end of the day
You are what will remain.
We all have times when we come to the edge of what we know, and our heavenly Father says to us, “Alright, now just lean way back and step off.” Perhaps some of us are there right now. Lord knows, we have had plenty of things pushing us to the edge lately. It’s not easy to move forward faithfully, but we know if we have God’s purpose at heart, we can move forward with great peace and unbeatable power, knowing that God will use all things to shape us into the likeness of the One who loves us most, Jesus Christ our Lord. And so at the edge we can pray with this peace that comes from trust, and this power that comes with purpose, to want what Christ would want, “’Cause at the end of the day, Christ is what will remain.”