This Day in History: 0000-02-05

February 5 – Romans 8:18-25 

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.) 

The struggle is real my friends! We are far from alone in the suffering that comes as a result of the fallen nature of the world we inhabit. Every bit of it is cursed. Every living thing dying. All creation broken and entrenched in sin and sorrow.  

For as long as we live on this earth and in these bodies it will not change. We can only wait, along with every other created thing for the day when Jesus Christ will return and restore it all to the perfection for which it was created. 

Are we waiting patiently and confidently? Is our hope secured like an anchor in our souls to the promise of our future glory? Though we may groan in agony as we wait, the Holy Spirit within us is the guarantee that offers us a glimpse of what is to come. He is the seal that reveals to us the realities of the promise. He abides within us, helping us and empowering us to fight the good fight for the true faith knowing there will be a day with no more pain, no more sorrow, no more shame, and no more sin!  

On that day when God reveals who His children really are, we’ll be set free from death and decay along with this created world. We’ll experience the glorious joy of eternity with Christ, and it will eclipse every sorrow that came before. We don’t have it yet, my friends, but we hope. With patience, and confidence, we hope!