Tuesday, August 21, 2018

waiting


DEVOTION
ROMANS
WAITING

Rom 8:18-25
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
NIV

Sometimes we get impatient for whatever we are hoping will happen in our lives. As children we were hoping someday we would be adults, we couldn’t wait for the day we could, whatever it is that children can’t do until they are older. We couldn’t wait for the day we did not have to go to school. We could not wait for the day we met the right person. Then marriage, then more waiting for us men, waiting for our wives and our little girls to be ready for wherever we were going. We hope for the day we can buy our first home. We hope for the day we get that job, or position or career we always wanted. Then we hope for the day we retire. We are always hoping and waiting for something, it just seems that is the way of life. But here we are waiting for the day our bodies will be resurrected into the glory of the Lord. Although Jesus has said the Kingdom of God is near, he also talked about the kingdom of God as a place we are already in. We are no longer citizens of this world, but citizens of the kingdom of God.

Phil 3:19-21
 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
NIV

So now we spent our time eagerly waiting for the return of Jesus to call us home to be in glory with him. But the fact still remains that we are already in the kingdom of God. Just as every person lives within an earthly kingdom, we live in God’s kingdom. Those who live in the United States live within the kingdom of the United States, subject to the laws of the land. Foreign people who come to this country go through a process to become a naturalized citizen. Those born here are born as citizens of this country. When we become born again we become citizens of the kingdom of God. So in some sense it would seem we have dual citizenship. We are still subject to the laws of the land we live in, but we are now living here as foreigners or aliens.

1 Peter 2:11-12
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
NIV

So although we hope, we wait patiently for the day our bodies are resurrected, we are already living in the new creation, the kingdom of God, even if we cannot see it in the physical realm. Although we live in the physical realm of this world, we are no longer citizens of the world, but are rather ambassadors of the kingdom of God to this world. We speak for our sovereign Lord. In some sense we have diplomat immunity in this world, that is we are not subject to the laws of the physical realm, but live as children of God. The problem is when we are not living as children of God, when we are not eagerly waiting for that day we will be in the glory of God, we live as though we are in the world and take on the laws of the world as ours. What are the laws of the world? We know them well. These laws are based on self-centeredness, getting ahead, success, achievements, gaining power, wealth, fame and all the material goods we can accumulate. But we live by the laws of the kingdom of God, which is loving him we all our being and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Yet we wait, we wait and we wait patiently for the day of the redemption of our physical bodies, for our spirit is already with God.  

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