Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Romans 8:18-19
Not long ago, my three-year-old nephew, Owen, was playing with a toy. He was very upset when his toy suddenly broke. He immediately said to me, "Fix it!" I took a look at it and saw that I could, indeed, fix his toy. Owen was not worried because he knew that I would be able to fix his broken toy. He had confidence in my ability to fix it. My friend, so much in our lives can feel broken, but we have a loving God who will, one day, restore everything. He will, one day, quite literally "fix it." On that day, He will make everything right.
Our focus this week is on the monsoon of suffering. Not one of us are strangers to suffering. This fact has become extremely apparent to each one of us lately as sickness and death surround us, and many people are hurting in their own specific way. In light of this suffering, we are all in need of hope. Praise God that Scripture offers this hope that we are all looking for. You see, we find in Scripture that God promises that, although this world is broken and hurting right now, one day, He is going to make everything right. One day this sickness, disease, death, and pain will no longer exist. God is going to make everything right.
How do I know that you and I have this hope? Romans 8:32 tells us that "we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering." We have the day when sin and suffering are no more because God is going to restore and redeem everything. This, my friends, is our hope. Yes, this world is full of suffering and trouble, but in our suffering and trouble, we can have hope because He truly will "fix" everything. You see, we have the promise of heaven and eternity forever with Him. The other promise that we have in this verse is that the suffering that we face on earth will not even compare to the glory of heaven. I can't wait.
What feels broken to you today? Is it your health, finances, or a broken relationship? While these things may feel very out of your control, they are not out of God's control. Take it to Him, the One who is in complete control of your life. Ask God to work in that specific area of your life, and then tell Him that you trust Him, not only with that specific situation, but your entire life as well.
Read Romans 8:18-30 (NLT)
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
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