“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
— Romans 8:31 (King James Version)
You know the feeling: sitting in the car before you go in. Maybe it's the doctor's office, maybe it's the room where they'll tell you if your position survives the reorg, maybe it's just the kitchen table where a hard conversation with your teenager is about to happen. Your hands are on the wheel, the engine's off, and you're doing the math in your head — weighing what you're up against, tallying who's on the other side of the door. It rarely adds up in your favor. That's the moment this verse was written for.
Paul wasn't writing from a comfortable study. He'd been beaten, shipwrecked, hunted, and would eventually be executed for his faith — and yet he asks a question that sounds almost defiant: if God is for us, does it really matter who lines up against us? Not because the opposition isn't real, but because it's no longer the biggest fact in the room.
John Bunyan understood this in his bones. Imprisoned for twelve years simply for preaching without a license, he wrote Pilgrim's Progress from a jail cell — a story about a traveler named Christian who has to walk straight through the territory of a monster called Apollyon to get where he's going. Christian doesn't win by being stronger than the enemy. He wins because he keeps walking, sword in hand, trusting that the road belongs to Someone bigger than the thing blocking it.
Centuries later, Charles Spurgeon, the London preacher so many called "the Prince of Preachers," returned to this very passage again and again from his own pulpit, reminding congregations that courage isn't the absence of a formidable opponent — it's the settled confidence that the opponent doesn't get the final word.
So today, before you walk into whatever's waiting for you — the appointment, the meeting, the conversation you've been dreading — let the math change. You're not counting the odds against you. You're counting on the One who's already for you. That's not denial. That's courage with a foundation under it. Walk in.
A Prayer for Today
Lord, You know exactly what I'm facing today, even the parts I haven't said out loud. When I start counting everything stacked against me, remind me to count on You first. Give me the courage to walk through today's door with a steady heart, trusting that You go in ahead of me. Thank You for being for me, even now.