Category: Devotions

TUESDAY March 26^th

Romans 8:24-25

‘For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

These verses link back to the previous verse we considered in yesterday’s devotion, our hope is based upon the future reality of the resurrection or the redemption of our bodies. It is a hope that is based not upon something we can see but upon something that we wait for with patience and eager anticipation.

It is also a hope which is a confident hope that we are assured of because of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus and based upon the promises of Jesus.

Remember when Jesus went to the grave of Lazarus, he spoke to Martha the words we know so well, ‘“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”’  John 11:25-26.

We can hope for many things in this life, but many of those things we hope for may never happen, because the hope is based upon several other things that need to fall into place somehow or other to make it happen. But not with the future resurrection, everything that needed to fit into place has already happened, Jesus has died and has risen again, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20 he is the firstfruit, his own resurrection is a guarantee that the graves will one day open and the dead in Christ will be raised.

Job had this confident hope even before Jesus had proven he had power over death! Listen to what he has said in Job 19:25-27 I will capitalise some of it for emphasis, ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. AND AFTER MY SKIN HAS BEEN DESTROYED, YET IN MY FLESH I SHALL SEE GOD, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.’

This hope should cause us to wait with encouragement, perseverance and with a full commitment to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we have not put our hope, nor our faith in empty promises, or based them upon wishful thinking. We have put our hope fully and confidently on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. He is our hope, therefore we live in earnest expectation.

MONDAY March 25th

Romans 8:23

‘And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.’

Before we turn to the text, this last weekend marked the 4^th anniversary since I started sending out the devotions (March 23^rd, 2020) I will comment more in a weeks’ time.

Paul after speaking of the creation groaning as we saw in our previous devotion, then turns to speak of those who are belonging to Christ as also groaning inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. To more easily understand what Paul is saying we can turn to what he has written in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 ‘For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.’

The wonder of being a new creation is, that although the outer man is perishing and will one day die, and not one of us can get out of this, the promise of God is that the day is coming when the body will be redeemed! I know that primarily we think of redemption as being all about the salvation of our souls, being made spiritually alive again, the outworking of salvation also has an eternal effect on our bodies, for as we have already covered in 1 Corinthians 15, there is going to be a resurrection of the dead, more specifically the resurrection of those who have died in Christ, and that resurrection is all about the redemption of the body, and just as we have been made into new creations spiritually, our bodies will be restored, redeemed, resurrected to become new spiritual, glorious, immortal bodies fit to be found in the new heaven and the new earth wherein we will dwell.

So, we all suffer physically, we all grow older and start to creak and stiffen up, we all suffer with various ailments, because sin not only separated us from God, but it caused the human body to falter and frail and eventually fail. So, we groan, longing for and to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.

But the good news for the present is this, that while the outer man is perishing, we can continually know what it is for the inner man, the new creation to be daily renewed! And we live with this confident hope that God who has planned everything out, has given to us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing for us what is to come. And every guarantee that God gives is a rock-solid guarantee, he who raised Jesus from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through (or BECAUSE NIV) of his Spirit who lives in you (Romans 8:11).

So as Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 5:6 because of this future hope, ‘We are always of good courage.’

FRIDAY March 22^nd

Romans 8:19-22

‘For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.’

If we look back to the fall of mankind in Genesis chapter 3, we will discover that the consequences of his rebellion toward God also affected the created world.

In verse 17 we read ‘cursed is the ground because of you’, a few chapters later we see how the flood that God brought upon the earth because the wickedness of man was great in the earth (6:5) destroyed everything except Noah, his family and the animals etc. that God had instructed him to take into the ark.

When the waters resided, creation began to sprout again, but the curse from Genesis 3 was not taken from it, and the ground remains cursed until the day that Romans 8 speaks about, the revealing of the sons of God, or as the Amplified puts it, ‘Creation waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed’.

Just as we who have placed our faith in Christ will one day be raised to a new glorious state for eternity, so a wonderful renewal, recreation of the world will take place, and creation is groaning under the curse, waiting for that glorious day.

We often sing with the hymn writer the words of the hymn ‘How great thou art’ and in it we sing of the wonder of creation as we see the beauty in all that God has created, yet, how more wonderful it would be if it had not been for the curse of sin! Likewise, for us, as sinners we were under the curse of sin, we were not very attractive as sin filled or sin riddled individuals, yet Jesus came and he made it possible through his suffering and death for us to become new creations, and we are all still a work in progress until that glorious day when we shall be like Jesus! Raised with new glorified, immortal, eternal, spiritual bodies.

And then God will restore the earth, it says in 2 Peter 3:7 that ‘the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of Judgement and destruction of the ungodly’, verse 13 continues ‘But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.’

In Revelation 21, John saw into the future and God allowed him to see and record for us in verse 1 ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more’.

If we look at this world around us and consider how wonderful and how beautiful it all is despite the curse being upon it because of sin, how much more wonderful is the new earth going to be, sin free, pain free, disease free, curse free and it says in verse 3 ‘Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’

THURSDAY March 21^st

Romans 8:12

‘So then, brothers, (and sisters) we are debtors not to the flesh. To live according to the flesh’.

So far as we have been navigating through Romans 8 we have discovered that in coming to know Christ, we are no longer under condemnation, we have been set free from the law of sin and death, we have had our minds set upon the things of the Spirit, we have the Spirit of life dwelling in us, we have been settled into the family of God, and we need to learn to trust God as we suffer in this life, knowing that he has prepared a spectacular future for us, in which we will be glorified with him.

I will use today a few words found in Romans 8 and verse 12 ‘So then, brothers, (and sisters) we are debtors not to the flesh. To live according to the flesh’.

Considering what we have already discovered or rediscovered we need to remind ourselves that we are not debtors to the flesh, in other words, the flesh owes us nothing! The flesh just gets us into trouble, into tight spots, the flesh is that which wars against what we should now be as those who have been born again by the Spirit of God. We who know the Lord Jesus Christ have become debtors to Christ and all that he has done for us through his Spirit! The flesh continually got us into trouble, and will get us into trouble, but the Spirit has gotten us out of trouble and as we learn to live and walk by the Spirit, he will keep us out of trouble.

One hymn says this:

A debtor to mercy alone,

Of covenant mercy I sing;

Not, fear, with God’s righteousness on,

My person and offering to bring.

The terrors of law and of God

With me can have nothing to do;

My Saviour’s obedience and blood

Hide all my transgression from view.

 

The work which his goodness began,

The arm of his strength will complete;

His promise is Yea and Amen,

And never was forfeited yet.

Things future, nor things that are now,

Nor all things below or above,

Can make me his purpose forgo,

Or sever my soul from his love.

 

My name from the palm of his hands

Eternity will not erase;

Impressed on his heart it remains,

In marks of indelible grace.

Yes, I to the end shall endure,

As sure as the earnest is given;

More happy, but not more secure,

The glorified spirits in heaven.

A M Toplady

 

Whenever the flesh seeks to draw you, remember you owe it nothing, keep in step with the Spirit and remember that all the glory goes to Jesus.

WEDNESDAY March 20^th

Romans 8:18

‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’

We return to the same verse again, but this time to look at the latter part, ‘compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’

How often have we heard the saying when it comes to persevering at something, ‘keep your eye on the ball’. It means don’t let anyone or anything distract from achieving whatever it is you are seeking to do.

Well, as Christians we need firstly, to keep our eyes on Jesus, for he is the author and the finisher of our faith and secondly we need to keep our eyes on the future, and by this I don’t mean tomorrow or next week or maybe what we may be doing in a year’s time, but rather to keep our eye on eternity, for as we saw in the previous devotion from this verse the future will outweigh anything we experience here in the present. In fact, Paul says anything we undergo here is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Think of something that you had prepared for in this life, and you waited in anticipation for the day to arrive and when it did, you were so excited, and you ensured that you made the most out of the experience. And you look back and think wow it was worth all the waiting for.

Well, God has prepared what Paul calls ‘glory’ that will one day (although the word ‘day’ will mean nothing when it happens) will be revealed to us. And when we experience it, we will say ‘Wow, it was worth waiting for, all the suffering, all the difficult and trying times were worth it, in fact they have paled into insignificance.’

The other exciting thing is this, as I have already mentioned, the word day will not actually mean anything, for the glory that is to be revealed is not just for 24-hours, a quick period for us to enjoy and then it will all be over, it is going to be for eternity! For ever and ever! Doing what, being where? In the presence of almighty God, dwelling in his glory, worshipping around the throne, truly knowing what it is to be as the hymn writer of the best hymn to have ever been written, says, ‘Changed from glory into glory . . . lost in wonder, love and praise.’

We cannot really truly begin to imagine what it is going to be like, but one thing is for sure it is going to out of this world, God is going to be there, our wonderful Lord and Saviour is going to be there, and John in the book of Revelation tells us that there will be no more death, no mourning, no crying, no pain, for all that has been will have passed away and all things we be made new.

So, keep your eye on the ball, so to speak, keep focused upon Jesus and upon eternity. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.

TUESDAY March 19^th

Romans 8:18

‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’

We looked at the previous verse to this one back on March 14^th, which says, ‘providing we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him’.

When it comes to suffering for the cause of the gospel, or for the name of Christ, or for being a follower of Jesus, Paul says the suffering is not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. Paul is not undermining suffering, he is not saying that it is something trivial and not worth concerning ourselves about, he is showing to us that however bad it may be, what we will have in eternity will outweigh it all. In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 Paul wrote ‘For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.’

Our problem can or may be that our present seems to be so far removed from eternity which we consider as being a long way into the future, what we must do is to ensure that we have a firm and a present hope that is firmly set upon that which will be ours in the future based upon the promises of God.

The promises of God are sure and one of them is that as we suffer, God will guard us by his power! Listen to 1 Peter 1:5-7 ‘who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’

I have often said that so far we have it relatively good at present here in the UK, but the signs around us seem to indicate that as the days get even darker, we who serve the true and living God will see the powers of darkness rising up against us, we need to be ready, we need to be grounded in the word of God, we need to be continually found in being in the place where we can be equipped and strengthened to resolve in our hearts to stand firm.

May we also consider others who are suffering at this time, being persecuted in so many different ways for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, praying that God will guard them according to his promises and pray that God will again visit our own nation, we need our own nation to be revived again, for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit causing the tide to turn again and that we will return to righteousness.

We also learn from the example of Jesus who suffered far and beyond anything we can even begin to imagine, but it says of him ‘Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,’ Hebrews 12:2

MONDAY March 18^th

Romans 8:16

‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God’.

I want to take from this sentence for today the words ‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit’, and although here it is a confirmation that we are the children of God, we can also conclude from the word of God that the Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirit in other ways as well.

The Holy Spirit has not only been given to us for equipping and empowering but also to give us a witness in our spirit regarding spiritual matters and to the outworking of our Christian life. If we are willing to seek it and to ask for it, he gives to us inner confirmation, toward that which is God’s will for us.

In the book of Acts, we have an account of Paul along with Timothy and Silas embarking on a mission, but the Holy Spirit gave to them a witness, we do not know how, which was sufficient to stop them from preaching the word in Asia and prevented them from going to Bithynia. As a result, they came down instead to Macedonia, where they entered one of the leading cities, Philippi, resulting in a new Church being established. As a result, we have in our Bible’s today, a letter that Paul would later write to them, which has encouraged believers down through the centuries ever since.

It is vital that we also listen out sensitively for the leading and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, asking him to give us witness in our spirit that we are acting and living according to what he is desiring for us. Waiting for the witness that may give us a yes or a no, the witness that may say wait awhile or act now, the witness that will if we are truly sensitive toward it will stop us when we are heading the wrong path and put us in the right direction.

In Galatians, after Paul has spoken about the fruit of the Spirit, he continues to say, ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit’.

May we learn to live by and keep in step with the Spirit, listening to his promptings, as he moves us forward in our daily walk, allowing him to witness with our spirit, this is the way, walk in it.

FRIDAY March 15^th

Romans 8:12–17

‘So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’

I am going back to the middle of these verses to ‘For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”’

We have another mention here of the Holy Spirit, and here it is to remind us that the Holy Spirit does not cause us to fear! In Christ, because we are no longer under condemnation we do not have to fear, instead we can come before God, not trembling, expecting to stand before him with a stick in his hand to beat us, but to come before him as children would come before a loving and caring father. We say to him ‘Abba! Father!’

Paul reminded the Galatians of the very same thing, Galatians 4:6 ‘And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”’

In Mark 14:36, as Jesus was faced with going to Calvary, Mark records that he prayed this way ‘And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”’

You see the connection that Paul is making? In Christ we have become adopted into the family. Therefore, just as Jesus could come before God and say ‘Abba, Father’, so can we. We are heirs of the Father; we are joint heirs with the Son.

Isn’t it wonderful to know that we are adopted into the family of God, we can call him ‘Our Father, who art in heaven’, we can come to him, knowing that even before we ask, he knows what we need, and as our Abba, as our Father, he cares for each one of us and will meet our needs as we ask just as Jesus did, in  accordance to his will.

THURSDAY March 14^th

Romans 8:12–17

‘So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’

I left off yesterday with the phrase from verse 17 ‘provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’

When Paul visited the Churches in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, it says that this is what he did in Acts 14:22 ‘strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.’

Paul realised that being a follower of Jesus was not going to be easy, it would require that those who have decided to follow Jesus would also need to be determined to not turn back, in the words of a song, it was essential to have the cross before you and the world behind you. Following Jesus especially in the early years of the Church cost, we read of it throughout Acts, as the believers were persecuted and scattered for their faith, and Paul saw this as going through many tribulations, or as suffering with Christ. And following Jesus today, is costing so many of our brothers and sisters a lot, but they are willing to undergo the suffering because they know that it leads to being ‘fellow heirs with Christ’.

Peter also spoke about suffering for the sake of the gospel in his two letters and in 1 Peter 2:21 he wrote ‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.’

I am sure that none one of us wants to suffer, but Peter has said in the previous verse ‘But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God’, this means that God is watching what is going on, he sees us as and when we suffer and it is precious to him, he can see the work of grace being outworked in our lives that will eventually lead to us being glorified with Christ. Suffering may not seem to be pleasant for us, it certainly wasn’t for Christ, yet he saw beyond that to the joy that was set before him. May we keep our eyes focused on the finishing line, and if, and when we suffer, we can know that God’s grace will be sufficient for us, and the result is such that we will be able to say with the hymn writer, ‘It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus, life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face all sorrow will erase, so bravely run the race till we see Christ.’

Paul continues in verse 18 with these words ‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’

We will come back to this theme in a few days, March 19^th.

WEDNESDAY March 13^th

Romans 8:12–17

‘So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’

The flesh owes us absolutely nothing! Put simply the flesh, the desires of the flesh will only lead to one end, and that is of death. But Paul says, the Spirit leads to life. I know which I would prefer!

These verses again like the previous group of verses were difficult to break down so I will include them as a whole and consider them over a few devotions.

Paul has more good news, and it is this, that living by and being led by the Spirit not only leads to life, but also brings us into the wonderful position of becoming and being called the sons of God, we have become the children of God!

Sonship and being the children of God is a theme that Paul touches on elsewhere in his letters and was also a subject that John liked to speak about.

The first mention is by John in his gospel, where he reminds us that Jesus came into this world, but his own, that is the Jewish people who had been looking for the promised and long awaited for Messiah, rejected him, this led to Jesus going to Calvary and then John says ‘But to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God’ John 1:12. But there was an essential requirement, they needed to be born of God, and this is a reference to being born again by the Spirit of God (v13),  ‘. . .for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith’ Galatians 3:26.

He gave the right; as we have been born again, we not only have the right to become the children of God, but we also have the rights to everything that is linked to being a son or a daughter of God.

Listen again to what verse 17 says ‘and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ . . .’ tomorrow we will see what this rests upon, ‘provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’