God Has Your Best Interests in Mind...Always!

Romans 8:12-17 New International Version

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[a] And by him we cry, “Abba,[b] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Wednesday - May 19

Luther: “All men are slaves of sin, because all commit sin. In two ways this spirit [of slavery] is called the spirit of “fear.” First, because it compelled unwilling men to do the works of the Law because of fear and the threats of punishment, and thus… in their heart they drew back (rebelled) from the intent and purpose of the Law the more they were compelled to approach it outwardly and in works. Second, this spirit is called the spirit of fear because this slavish fear also compels men to give up their outward obedience to the works of the Law in the time of trial. This fear ought to be called worldly fear rather than slavish fear, for it is not a matter of fulfilling the Law but the slavish fear of losing temporal goods or of suffering impending evils, and thus even worse than slavish fear. (As Pastor R.J. Grunewald puts it: “A ‘spirit of fear’ is what you experience when you don’t trust that God has your best interest in mind. But in Christ, we have faith that God does!)