More than Conquerors

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He 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? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither 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.

~ I was talking to Jon Lin last night and the question was raised about why I wanted to become a doctor (because I was complaining about my clumisness and slow reflexes, how maybe I should be a kindergarten teacher instead =P)
I'm not sure why sometimes...but deep down, the reason I'm clinging on to this dream (which is pretty ambitious for someone like me) is that I believe that it's something that God is calling me to do.
Jon Lin puts it really nicely, "I like to believe that noble dreams comes from God and that God would not give us great visions if we're not able to achieve them."
Sometimes, I do want an affirmation of some sort...then I think of the story of Gideon asking for signs from God, and how I used to simple-mindedly think (I sometimes still do), hmmm God was so obviously speaking to him...how could he not believe???
Well, I am just another doubter wanting a sign, just another sign from God.

But God is gracious. He always is! =) Reading Romans 8:28-39 was the sign for me today =)
I was feeling sleepy the other day, that's why I left the rest of the chapter for another day (plus I knew that this was going to be one of the nicest bit so of course, one must be really focused =D) And so, I started reading...and indeed, each verse spoke and resonated to my heart. I first came to love Romans 8:28 when my dear friend Pau, wrote it for our autograph books in Secondary 4.
faith...that it is as He has promised.
And that His grace is indeed sufficient, will always be...His power is made perfect in weakness.
my weaknesses, but He uses them for His glory! =)
As for the rest of the passage, I love the rhetorical questions that Paul asks. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
I recall this excerpt from The Hiding Place, in which Corrie ten Boom recounts her experience in Ravensbruck, the dreaded concentration camp in Germany, with her sister Betsie...

But as the rest of the world grew stranger, one thing
became increasingly clear. And that was the reason the two of us were here. Why
others should suffer we were not shown. As for us, from morning until
lights-out, whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the
center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope. Like waifs clustered around
a blazing fire, we gather about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and
light. The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more
beautiful burned the word of God. “Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword? ... Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us.”
I would look about us as Betsie read, watching
the light leap from face to face. More than conquerors. …It was not a wish. It
was a fact. We knew it, we experienced it minute by minute – poor, hated hungry.
We are more than conquerors. Not “we shall be.” We are! Life in Ravensbruck took
place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, exterior
life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew
daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory.

God is good and we can be assured that we are indeed more than conquerors! So let us surrender all our ambitions, hopes and plans into His hands =)
...and He's thinking of us 24/7
are we?