2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 17
The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence
Day 17
“and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him,” Romans 8:17
Heirs of God, Fellow Heirs with Christ
God takes rebellious sinners and saves us from His wrath through the work of His Son’s death on the cross. He offers to us complete forgiveness of sins. He declares us as righteous in His eyes through the righteous life of His Son. He then takes us and adopts us as His own children. All of these truths are overwhelming. They overwhelm the senses. Who can fathom such divine love? Who can fathom a ruler taking the rebellious peasants and making peace with them at great personal cost? This verse engages our minds on a new level of divine love. Our adopted status as children of God is not some second-class family relationship. Instead, He brings us into the family in order to make us co-heirs with Christ. All things exist by Christ and for Christ. Now that we are adopted into the family, with Christ as our brother, He shares all that is His with us.
If We Suffer With Him, We May Also Be Glorified With Him
But what about suffering? If we face trials, does this mean these promises are no longer valid? Paul answers by reminding us that Christ suffered. Christ suffered and was then glorified. Even if we suffer in this life, we also will be glorified with Him. Trials come. Troubles come. However, these troubles do not mean God has forgotten us. These trials do not mean God’s love for us has ceased. Trials do not mean the end of God’s love for us anymore than the suffering of Christ meant His Father’s love had left Him forever. Trials, troubles, and suffering all distinguish us as members of the family. These difficulties mark us family members, because they are what our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, endured. We cannot let troubles in this life shake our confidence of these truths. The end of the troubles of Christ Jesus was His everlasting glory. That is the end of all believers in Christ Jesus. As members of the family, God will redeem our difficulties and one day, He will overshadow our trials with everlasting glory. This is what the Father did for His Son. This is what He will do for His adopted children as well.
Prayer Focus
Your love, Oh Lord, is beyond my comprehension. Your love perplexes my mind. I cannot fully understand Your divine love whereby You take sinners in open rebellion against You, make us Your adopted children and grant us to share in the inheritance of Your Son. There are trials in my life. Lord, I confess that sometimes my suffering causes me to question my relationship with You. Sometimes my difficulties cause me to lose confidence. Thank You, oh my God and Savior, that my temporary troubles are not big enough to thwart Your everlasting plans for me.
From DL Moody’s Secret Power
SPIRITUAL IRRIGATION
It is possible a man may just barely have life and be satisfied; and I think that a great many are in that condition. In the 3rd chapter of John we find that Nicodemus came to Christ and that he received life. At first this life was feeble. You don’t hear of him standing up confessing Christ boldly, and of the Spirit coming upon him in great power, though possessing life through faith in Christ. And then turn to the 4th chapter of John, and you will find it speaks of the woman coming to the well of Samaria, and Christ held out the cup of salvation to her and she took it and drank, and it became in her “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” That is better than in 3rd chapter of John; here it came down in a flood into her soul; as someone has said, it came down from the throne of God, and like a mighty current carried her back to the throne of God. Water always rises to its level, and if we get the soul filled with water from the throne of God it will bear us upward to its source But if you want to get the best class of Christian life portrayed, turn to the 7th chapter of John, and you will find that it says he that receives the Spirit, through trusting in the Lord Jesus, “out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” Now there are two ways of digging a well. I remember, when a boy, upon a farm in New England, they had a well, and they put in an old wooden pump. I used to have to pump the water from that well upon wash-day, and to water the cattle; and I had to pump and pump and pump until my arm got tired, many a time. But they have a better way now; they don’t dig down a few feet and brick up the hole and put the pump in, but they go down through the clay and the sand and the rock, and on down until they strike what they call a lower stream, and then it becomes an artesian well, which needs no labor, as the water rises spontaneously from the depths beneath. Now I think God wants all His children to be a sort of artesian well; not to keep pumping, but to flow right out. Haven’t you seen ministers in the pulpit just pumping and pumping and pumping? I have, many a time, and I have had to do it, too. I know how it is. They stand in the pulpit and talk and talk and talk, and the people go to sleep, they can’t arouse them. What is the trouble? Why, the living water is not there; they are just pumping when there is no water in the well. You can’t get water out of a dry well; you have to get something in the well, or you can’t get anything out. I have seen these wooden pumps where you have to pour water into them before you could pump any water out, and so it is with a good many people; you have to get something in them before you can get anything out. People wonder why it is that they have no Spiritual power. They stand up and talk in a meeting, and don’t say anything; they say they haven’t anything to say, and you find it out soon enough; they need not state it; but they just talk, because they feel it is a duty, and say nothing. Now I tell you when the Spirit of God is on us for service, resting upon us, we are anointed, and then we can do great things. “I will pour water on him that is thirsty,” says God. O blessed thought - “He that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled!” (Isaiah 44:3; Matthew 5:6)