Weekly devotion: Nothing can separate us from the love of God

The Rock, Cairo

A street scene from a garbage-collecting community in Cairo.

This week, we’re praying for a project we support in Egypt that works with marginalised families in Cairo communities where garbage collecting is the main source of employment. The Rock project supports parents struggling to provide for their children and works with them to avoid family separation.

As is the case in many countries, most children in orphanages in Egypt do have living parents. Yet for various reasons, often financial, parents decide their child will have a better life in a residential home. Yet while their practical needs may be met, the psychological and emotional impact on the child is overlooked.

Through The Rock project, Life Vision are working to ensure that children live with their parents or other relatives as far as is safe and possible, and that families understand the importance of parental love and care. Even in situations of economic hardship, a family can be a child’s ‘rock’ and enable them to grow into stable and confident adults.

Bible verses

‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither 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.’

Romans 8:38-39

Thought

In our broken and imperfect world, things are not always as they should be. In Egypt, as in many other countries, poverty can force people to make impossible choices. And yet, despite the sadness and difficulties that we witness and sometimes even experience, the words in these Bible verses hold true: nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.

Ask yourself: How does the enduring certainty of God’s love for you encourage you?

Prayer

Father God,

We thank you that you alone are our rock and our fortress, and in you we can find refuge.

We lift before you The Rock project. Thank you for each and every family that it has worked with, to avoid separation and to reintegrate children back into their family homes. May your hand of blessing be upon each of these families; may they continue to be loving, safe and nurturing spaces where children can flourish.

Thank you that your love endures for ever – may this inspire us to serve you this day.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Find out more about The Rock project in Episode 16, Season 3, of our podcast:

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