Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death?

No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!

neither the world above nor the world below---there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance,

endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope.

You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.

Remember how the LORD your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to do and whether you would obey his commands.

He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the LORD says.

In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end he could bless you with good things.

God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths;

"I, the LORD, the God of Israel, consider that the people who were taken away to Babylonia are like these good figs, and I will treat them with kindness.

I will give them the desire to know that I am the LORD. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with all their heart.

And I will test the third that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are my people, and they will confess that I am their God."

All this is for your sake; and as God's grace reaches more and more people, they will offer to the glory of God more prayers of thanksgiving.

And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble.

For we know that when this tent we live in---our body here on earth---is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever.

because I know that by means of your prayers and the help which comes from the Spirit of Jesus Christ I shall be set free.

For what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more.

I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing;

All of this proves that God's judgment is just and as a result you will become worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering.

and he will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels,

Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a child."

If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards.

Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness.

Lift up your tired hands, then, and strengthen your trembling knees!

for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure.

Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.

You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express,

I rebuke and punish all whom I love. Be in earnest, then, and turn from your sins.

This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.

But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

" LORD God of Heaven! You are great, and we stand in fear of you. You faithfully keep your covenant with those who love you and do what you command.

the descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who love him will live there.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'

However, as the scripture says, "What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him."

Happy are those who remain faithful under trials, because when they succeed in passing such a test, they will receive as their reward the life which God has promised to those who love him.

Listen, my dear friends! God chose the poor people of this world to be rich in faith and to possess the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.

This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

We love because God first loved us.

This is how we know that we love God's children: it is by loving God and obeying his commands.

For our love for God means that we obey his commands. And his commands are not too hard for us,

And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.

This also includes you who are in Rome, whom God has called to belong to Jesus Christ.

And so I write to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his own people: May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, "The older will serve the younger." He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done.

And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory.

For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.

The earth trembles and shakes because the LORD is carrying out his plan to make Babylonia a desert, where no one lives.

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the Lord's message; and those who had been chosen for eternal life became believers.

But God in his grace chose me even before I was born, and called me to serve him. And when he decided

God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ.

This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.

God did this according to his eternal purpose, which he achieved through Christ Jesus our Lord.

God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

We must thank God at all times for you, friends, you whom the Lord loves. For God chose you as the first to be saved by the Spirit's power to make you his holy people and by your faith in the truth.

God called you to this through the Good News we preached to you; he called you to possess your share of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But the solid foundation that God has laid cannot be shaken; and on it are written these words: "The Lord knows those who are his" and "Those who say that they belong to the Lord must turn away from wrongdoing."

But after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who calls you to share his eternal glory in union with Christ, will himself perfect you and give you firmness, strength, and a sure foundation.