2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 19
The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence
Day 19
“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19
Creation Waits Eagerly
Paul personified creation in this passage. Creation “longs” and “waits eagerly” (verse 19). Creation “groans” and “suffers” (verse 22). What produces such anxious longing and suffering within the creation? The creation is waiting for the plan of God to come to fruition. I know I say this often, but it bears repeating. All creation exists for the glory of God. God puts His glory on display throughout His creation in a variety of ways. The sun, moon, and stars declare God’s glory (Psalm 19). Humans display the glory of God, because we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1). However, God is most glorified in His Son, Jesus Christ. God’s plan culminates in redeeming rebellious sinners through the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son. In doing so, God sums up all of creation in His Son, which brings Him maximum glory. “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him…that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” (Ephesians 1:9-10) “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together…For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1:13-20) This is the plan of God, the summing up of all things in His Son, Jesus Christ. God is most glorified when His Son is the focus of all creation, especially in the exaltation of Christ by the children of God. This plan is still a work in progress. According to Paul, the ultimate completion of this glorious plan comes when Christ brings many children of God to glory. When Paul said “creation waits eagerly,” he is not referring to the longing of humans, for in this passage humans are distinguished from the rest of the creation. Verse 23 says “and not only this, but also we ourselves…” wait eagerly for our adoption. Just like the creation, we also long for the completion of this divine plan. Therefore, creation must refer to trees, animals, stars, planets, and all other created things. How is this possible? How is it possible that inanimate objects long and wait for our redemption? How is it possible that created objects groan and suffer? Jesus hints at something similar during His triumphant entry. When the religious leaders complain about the shouts of the crowd, Jesus responds “if these are silent even the rocks will cry out.” Apparently, the rocks know their Creator. According to Paul, they also know their Creator’s plan. The creation struggles under sin’s ugly consequences. The birds, the trees, and the mountains, all disdain what we have done to God’s creation. They all long for God to restore the original order prior to Adam’s rebellion. Evidence for the struggle of creation under the weight of sin is all around us. The creation is crying out that this world is broken and needs the completed work of God to bring it into order. The creation waits for God to bring to completion His divine plan of salvation. Surely, if the created order longs for this redemption plan of God, we too should long for it. This is a sad state of affairs when the birds and trees have a better grasp of the plans of God than we do. It is truly sad when the mountains and rocks are more eager for His glory than we are.
The Revealing of the Sons of God
The creation anticipates the ‘revealing’ of the true nature of the children of God. We are already children of God. We are children of God the very moment we put our trust in Christ. However, from the observation of the created world, we do not yet appear as children of God. We are still subjected to the futility of a broken world and we continue to struggle with suffering in this life. The creation longs for the transformation that is still future, an eternal transformation, that will bring an end to the futility of the entire creation. Our final step in the adoption process, a transformation that will occur at the culmination of human history, is the deep longing of the rest of the creation. The creation longs for “the revealing of the sons of God” of which Paul described here as “not only a disclosure of what we have always been but also a dynamic process by which the status we now have in preliminary form and in hiddenness will be brought to its final stage and made publicly evident.” (Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, page 515)
Prayer Focus
Father, forgive me for my obsession with this world. I hold too tightly to the temporary aspects of this life while ignoring the glorious, eternal reality You have for us. Put an eagerness within me. Place a longing in my heart for the culmination of Your divine plan. I want to exalt Jesus Christ, face to face. I long to experience Your creation without the detriments of human sin. Please, God, help me to live with the reality that this life is temporary. Help me to live with my hands open, freely sharing the resources You have given to me. Forgive me for hanging on to Your resources as if they were mine. All that I have is Yours. Let me use these resources in such a way as to last forever. Let Your people, as we gather in Your name, live out our faith together with divine, eternal focus.
From DL Moody’s Secret Power
WHY SOME FAIL
We read in John 20:22, “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” Then see Luke 24:49: “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” The first passage tells us He had raised those pierced and wounded hands over them and breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And I haven’t a doubt they received it then, but not in such mighty power as afterward when qualified for their work. It was not in fullness that He gave it to them then, but if they had been like a good many now, they would have said, “I have enough now; I am not going to wait; I am going to work.” Some people seem to think they are losing time if they wait on God for His power, and so away they go and work without earnestness; they are working without any anointing, they are working without any power. But after Jesus had said “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and had breathed on them, He said: Now you wait in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high.” Read in the 1st chapter of Acts, 8th verse: “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Now, the Spirit had been given them certainly or they could not have believed, and they could not have taken their stand for God and gone through what they did, and endured the scoffs and frowns of their friends, if they had not been converted by the power of the Holy Spirit. But now see what Christ said: “You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” Then the Holy Spirit in us is one thing, and the Holy Spirit on us is another; and if these Christians had gone out and went right to preaching then and there, without the power, do you think that scene would have taken place on the day of Pentecost? Don’t you think that Peter would have stood up there and beat against the air, while these Jews would have gnashed their teeth and mocked him? But they waited in Jerusalem; they waited ten days. What! you say. What, the world perishing and men dying! Shall I wait? Do what God tells you. There is no use in running before you are sent; there is no use in attempting to do God’s work without God’s power. A man working without this earnestness, a man working without this anointing, a man working without the Holy Spirit upon him, is losing his time after all. So we are not going to lose anything if we wait till we get this power. That is the object of true service, to wait on God, to wait till we receive this power for witness-bearing. Then we find that on the day of Pentecost, ten days after Jesus Christ was glorified, the Holy Spirit descended in power. Do you think that Peter, James and John and those apostles doubted it from that very hour? They never doubted it. Perhaps some question the possibility of having the power of God now, and that the Holy Spirit never came afterward in similar manifestation, and will never come again in such power.