8:1 People who follow the philosophy of life Jesus taught (or have found the same philosophy of life through some other path) are free from many things. Our creator has left us the breadcrumb-sprinkled paths toward happiness. He leads us into self-value, self-purpose, and gives us the wisdom, perspective and opportunity to productively fulfill it. He gives us the wisdom to realize, access and then utilize our spiritual selves, to be more than just bodies going through the motions.
8:2 As Paul expresses, our creator frees us from the discontentment and frustration, the cyclical chaos of anger, greed, and injustice. He frees us from purposelessness. He removes our limits and places us on a peak able to view all of the possibilities of ourselves and our lives. He prepares us for the life beyond this one.
8:3-4 Many people were unable to realize, understand and absorb God's philosophy without Jesus' teachings. There were a set of guidelines to follow but people did not understand the purpose of them; people did not understand that life was bigger than this portion of life on earth. Jesus came and manifested kindness, justice and faith, a living example.
8:5-6 The focus of our mind is the representation of who we are. Moreover, the limits of our mind is a representation of who we are. Our focus must be grand, must incorporate more perspectives than just our own. If we focus selfishly on ourselves, on having a powerful and wealthy life here now, not only do we neglect others but we also neglect the deeper part of ourselves. To be spiritually minded is to have a broad perspective of both this life and the next: the promotion of life and peace always our focus.
8:7-8 Paul is teaching us to separate our spirits from the bodies which host them. Paul teaches us not to succumb to the inclinations our bodies can tend to have: anger, impatience, greed. Our spirits are more productive than our bodies, they are wiser and capable of great patience. In other words, we can more wisely and productively balance and respond to situations in our lives when we access our spirit.
There is more to life than just existing or procuring. We can be purposeful, instrumental, even in bettering the people and world around us. We can be purposeful and instrumental in bettering ourselves and our own lives. God has a difficult time understanding a person who does not live up to their potential, a person who wastes it away due to lethargy or apathy.
8:9 Therefore, a person who has awakened to and nourished their spiritual self has the support and guidance of the Spirit they came from. A puzzle piece, they've fit into their perfectly tailored place and can now access the grander picture and the support of being more than just a singular, random existence.
8:10 This is a metaphor: when we awaken spiritually, we are no longer bound to the whims and emotions of our bodies. Instead, we think and act strategically, productively in compassion through our minds.
8:11 I love this verse because it speaks of the intimate relationship we have with our creator. More than simply being with us, He is within us. Only a spiritual being can exist in a spiritual world, the life which follows this one. If you haven't wakened spiritually, how can you exist there? It's not a punishment it's just simple logic. A living thing must adapt to its habitat.
Remember, there is no such thing as hell. Our creator has created, promoted and sustain life not death. In the next life, we either are able to exist there or we are not able: meaning we are not able to exist. Evil thoughts, actions, people, potential, are poof! Gone! Extinct.
8:12-13 We owe it to God but also to ourselves to claim our lives. Ours lives improve exponentially, indescribably, when start living deeper than our superficial surface. Our creator has made that possible but we contribute to its possibility when we live purposefully, spiritually.
Don't confuse "spiritually" with "religiously." Spirituality is a way of life, the philosophy of living purposefully in compassion. You can be spiritual and simultaneously non-religious. You can be religious and simultaneously non-spiritual. Being a good person is more important that customs, traditions and rules. You don't even ever have to go to church or any other religious organization. How you interact with yourself and humanity is representative of your spirituality.
8:14 If you live with God's philosophy of life, you awaken to your existence as His child.
8:15 We are freed and embraced by our creator, our parent, our father, mother, however you conceive of the divine entity which has given us life. We aren't traded from authoritarian to authoritarian, when we join with God, we join in freedom with our family.
"Abba": father; customary title used of God in prayer.
8:16-17 Children of God live in Him and He in them. Together they endure all things: love and sadness, joy and frustration. As His children, His home becomes our home. He offers to us everything that He is and has created. We aren't guests, we aren't even honored guests, we too are the owners. We are blessed, beloved children.
8:18 This life, precious as it can be, difficult as it can be, is a blip on the radar. In the grand scheme, it is a tiny portion of our lives. Our loving creator wants us to remember and find comfort and excitement in the prospect of living with Him beyond this earth. There is so much love and light and beauty to follow.
Our courage is often required here on earth. When we become proponents of good and justice, we must confront out adversaries. Compassionate hearts endure heartbreak when injustice takes root but God wants us to know that our work here, strenuous and difficult as it may be, can never compare to the joy our life's work inspires. More than that, we are absorbed in tremendous love and light at the culmination of our lives here.
8:19 Paul explains to us that all living nature awaits to be reunited with God. The world around us is bursting with life: plants and animals, atmosphere and universe. God has created all of it and as all creation is a child of Himself, each hopes with anticipation to be with Him again. We each hope to be guided and nourished by Him.
8:20 Understandably, the earth has not benefited from humanity's presence here. God placed us here hoping that we would learn and grow and we certainly have made a mess while doing that. Humans have contributed to the extinction of many plants and animals, deforestation, desertification, global warming... in so many ways, humans have stripped earth of life. The earth, quite alive itself, is self-sustained, perfectly tailored to support and encourage life; it has a natural order. A natural order that humans have disrupted.
8:21 God's promises extend beyond us and we should humbly be joyful and grateful for this. God will restore and replenish this beautiful earth which has been our home, the food for our energy, the breath in our lungs, the material for our bodies. God does not neglect any of His creation. Earth will also receive its glorious liberty.
God loves us so much and yet He loves all that He has created so much. He's aware and attentive, generous and kind to every detail, every crevice, every life.
8:22-23 There is an imbalance here. The earth endures and we endure as we work to find our way back to our Spiritual Creator. There is unrest here, constant change and development. When we reach Him, everything and everyone will be established securely in Him and His perfection. We eagerly await His adoption of us. Everything and everyone will find their perfect fit and will remain in Him consistently.
8:24-25 Let our faith fuel our perseverance. We are sent here without recollection of Him and He places His hope in us that out of true love, we will find Him again. Can you imagine how difficult that is for Him? To say goodbye, for a time and maybe forever, to children He loves so much? To erase our memory of His love from our minds? Yet heart-breaking as it was, He has done it to gift us complete freedom of choice. Complete freedom to create ourselves. Those who truly love Him will feel His presence within themselves and will work to remember Him, will work to return to Him.
Let our faith fuel our perseverance because if He were right in front of us, we would take Him, each other and our lives for granted. This is why He has promised us: "If you seek with all your heart, you will find Me." Our seek reveals our true love and appreciation for Him. Our seek reveals that our true character is kind and compassionate, because His philosophy has resonated through our minds and hearts.
Here on earth we learn the value of life. We learn the destruction of injustice. We learn the resilience of compassion. Here on earth we are made wise through experience, seasoned, made aware. Our choices are informed here. Who we are is a choice here because we are allowed the freedom to create ourselves and our values. He hopes that who we become and the values we choose align with Him and His.
When we have faith in Him, we have the perseverance we need to productively live this life, this journey toward our spiritual home.
8:26 When we trust Him to do so, our creator lovingly and masterfully orchestrates the events and experiences of our lives. We have a limited view and therefore a limited understanding of what is best for us. His view is all-seeing, unhindered, and therefore He can plan best for us. Without even uttering a word, our creator is so masterfully intelligent, so humbly capable of weaving our lives.
He is what humans have labelled "science." He is intelligence. There is nothing He cannot accomplish. There is no such thing as "nothing" to Him because He has created everything. That is certainly the entity I would like to have my life held in their palm. He can ensure that our greatest growth, our greatest happiness comes into fruition with accuracy, planned from even before we were born.
He works and creates so divinely, competently, so swiftly, so perfectly that there are no traces, tangible, audible or otherwise of His labor.
8:27 Our creator, our Abba, knows us better than we even understand ourselves. He knows our hearts. He knows our spirits. The more faithfully we develop our relationship with Him, the more His perfect, compassionate Will is exerted into our lives. The Will we just spoke of: perfect and orchestrated since before our birth.
8:28 "All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." All things work together for good to those who love God because through their love and faith, they have welcomed His perfect Will into their lives; because they have joined in on His purpose of compassion. Anyone work in the name of compassion is aided and guided by Him. He loves to bless His children, He awaits our invitation to do so. He has elaborate plans for each of us, individually, specifically, it's our freedom to claim them or to not.
8:29-30 Abba knows us so well. He knows which of His children would eagerly and faithfully seek and find Him. Yet He still gave us the chance to make our decision to do so; we were not bound by His assumptions of who we were (even though He was right). He wanted all of His children to be given the chance to learn and grow and be better, stronger in faith, more generous in love and justice and He gave us earth to do so.
Yet even before our births here, He knew us. Those with deeply compassionate and faithful hearts have been predestined for certain experiences, entrusted with responsibility because God knew they would fulfill these purposes, planned and tailored just for them. God truly cherishes, embraces and supports His children who realize and act on how instrumental they can be in promoting justice in the world, in giving love to those who need it, in bringing light to places of darkness.
8:31 "If God is for us, who can be against us?" If God has predestined us, and we have accepted our purpose, nobody and nothing can derail us. His plan is too perfect, entirely infallible.
8:32-33 God has put His full heart, His fill spirit His fill effort and will into those who have given Him their faith. He guides us through even turn in our lives, meets us at every peak, catches our every fall and is our solid foundation whenever we start sink, He is the pillar we lead on, the beacon we trust. Who can triumph over you when you are so perfectly protected and upheld? Nobody. Nothing.
8:34 You have nothing to fear. God has exemplified to us that His children rise against every enemy. His divine-intervention guides and protects our lives. Nobody can challenge His hands, so ensure that you've given Him the faith and trust to put your life in them.
8:35 Regardless the severity of tribulation we face in our lives, nobody, no thing, no idea can separate us from Him. With Him not only do we endure, we also achieve.
8:36 Psalm 44:22 expresses a truth of God's children: we confront injustice on a daily basis. It is our constant duty to inspire, and protect justice and compassion. Some people around us label our kindness as weakness, but we know that it is our strength.
8:37 Over every tribulation, over each adversary "we are more than conquerors through Him" who LOVES us! We have His power over every enemy and difficulty if we reach out and accept it.
8:38-39 Paul writes two of the most beautiful verses in the bible, reminding us of the most beautiful truths of our lives: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God..."
8:32-33 God has put His full heart, His fill spirit His fill effort and will into those who have given Him their faith. He guides us through even turn in our lives, meets us at every peak, catches our every fall and is our solid foundation whenever we start sink, He is the pillar we lead on, the beacon we trust. Who can triumph over you when you are so perfectly protected and upheld? Nobody. Nothing.
8:34 You have nothing to fear. God has exemplified to us that His children rise against every enemy. His divine-intervention guides and protects our lives. Nobody can challenge His hands, so ensure that you've given Him the faith and trust to put your life in them.
8:35 Regardless the severity of tribulation we face in our lives, nobody, no thing, no idea can separate us from Him. With Him not only do we endure, we also achieve.
8:36 Psalm 44:22 expresses a truth of God's children: we confront injustice on a daily basis. It is our constant duty to inspire, and protect justice and compassion. Some people around us label our kindness as weakness, but we know that it is our strength.
8:37 Over every tribulation, over each adversary "we are more than conquerors through Him" who LOVES us! We have His power over every enemy and difficulty if we reach out and accept it.
8:38-39 Paul writes two of the most beautiful verses in the bible, reminding us of the most beautiful truths of our lives: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God..."
With Him, and with Him within us, we are strong, we are brave, we are able, we are wise, we are alive. Nothing and nobody will ever come between you and the entity Who loves you most.
