How Great is Our God!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

I know Lent starts tomorrow, but I have been thinking about what I'm going to give up and/or become better at for a couple weeks now. One of the things I want to become better at is to be more diligent and faithful when it comes to reading my Bible everyday. When better to start than RIGHT NOW! After I got Claire taken care of this morning and got my house cleaned up a bit I sat down with my Bible. I have a beautiful ESV Bible that my mom got me for Christmas and in the back of it has a daily Bible reading guide. I looked up the chapters I needed for today and jumped right in. (When I have more time to sit down for a longer period of time I plan on catching up on the chapters I missed.) I keep a notebook in my Bible case specifically for the purpose of writing down verses and key points of what I read. I love looking back at what I've read and see what stood out to me.

The reading that stood out to me the most today came from Romans chapter 5. I took a class on Romans in college with an amazing professor and have been in love with this book ever since. I still have my notes from the class!

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have no been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have no received reconciliation." - Romans 5:1-11

How AWESOME are those words?! As believers, through faith, we have been justified and declared righteous forever and therefore we do not fear the wrath of God, but rather we have peace with God. That standing reassures me that I will be glorified and perfected on the day of judgment. That hope makes me JOYFUL!