“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:16-17)
In the February 20, 1994 "Our Daily Bread," it was observed that "Thankfulness seems to be a lost art today. Warren Wiersby illustrated the problem in his commentary on Colossians. He told about a ministerial student in Evanston, Illinois, who was part of a life-saving squad. In 1860, a ship went aground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Evanston, and Edward Spencer waded again and again into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers. In the process, his health was permanently damaged. Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever thanked him." And here’s the question for us – Are we thankful to the God who died to save us?
1st Thessalonians 5 is very interesting. The chapter starts out with a mention of what we call the “rapture” of the church. Those who have faith in the Lord Jesus are encouraged that we will be rescued permanently from the difficulties of this world, just when we need it most. And yes the narrative continues that worse trouble is coming to this place, this planet, but we are to be lifted out. Verse 9 of that chapter indicates that “God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And yet, as our Scripture today in Romans would indicate, in between the time now and that blessed time, we will know suffering. We only have to listen to or watch the daily news broadcasts to know that suffering is everywhere for everybody.
1st Thessalonians continues that we are to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Have you noticed that most people forget to rejoice, be thankful and pray when everything seems to go wrong?
My wife and I attended a “Hope for the Holidays” grief seminar a few nights ago. Everyone who attended had lost someone close, someone dear to them. The annual holidays were coming soon and all were wondering some form of the question: “How can I cope with the holidays if my loved one is not here to share this time with me?” Certainly that question is or will be pertinent to us all.
Some days before the “Hope for the Holidays” seminar, in another context, we heard the testimony of two women who had lost their husbands because of cancer. In each case, the cancer brought those husbands and wives to faith in Jesus Christ. In one of those instances, the whole family gave their hearts and lives to the Lord. We aren’t really capable as mere humans to understand the works that God is doing behind the scenes of our lives, but we can see that His priorities are different and higher than ours. We want health and long life; He wants faith and love.
When I was a little boy, my parents and I took a one-way train ride across Canada from our home in Portland, Maine, down to a new home in Long Beach, California, USA. I didn’t particularly want to go because all my friends were in Portland, Maine, and I would never see them again. But what I didn’t know was that my parents had been told by a doctor that my constant ear infections would lead to problems that could be life-threatening, and were caused by the cold winters in Maine. He told them to move to a warm climate, suggesting Arizona or California. I lost my friends, but according to the doctor, my life was possibly saved because my parents loved me more than they loved their own friends, the home they had to sell and the security of my father’s employment.
In California, my parents did not own a home as they had in Maine and we did not have a car. We walked everywhere for years as we moved from a hotel which burned down into temporary quarters in the YMCA, then a tiny little bungalow in a bad section of town, and from there to a series of little apartments. Ironically, I was struck down by rheumatic fever and spent five years in wheelchairs and hospital beds. Trying to give my some kind of stability and privacy, my parents often gave me the one small bedroom and did not have a room of their own.
If you wonder – was I thankful to God or to my parents during those years? The true answer is – no I was not. My friends in Maine were beginning to be forgotten, but I had made new friends near that little bungalow neighborhood and I remember my father carrying me to the door, opening it, and there were my friends saying “goodbye” to me. They had sold coke bottles and bought me flowers. I never saw them again. I was touched and miss them still, but I was not thankful to God.
But like those two women who came to Christ because cancer had entered their lives, my life was being changed also. When I was sixteen, I was brought to faith in the Lord through a church group. The “negative” events of my life had changed me. I was no longer an outgoing kid who made friends easily. I had become introspective and lonely, no longer always knowing what to do and say. The Lord touched me inside in a lonely place and I received Him. You have a lonely place also. Did I become thankful at that moment? Briefly, yes, but I wanted to know life and soon wandered away from Him.
When life and the Holy Spirit brought me back to the Lord years later, I was now thankful. I felt “born again” as the Lord said in John Chapter Three. I had tasted life and found that to live without God’s guidance causes great problems. Romans Eight, today’s Scripture, became real: Something I was not thankful for previously now came alive --- Jesus Christ suffered and died for you and me. And because of what He did, “There is… now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). I could not go back in time and change my unthankful past anymore than you can, but I could utterly give my life to Jesus Christ right now. I did. I am His.
“What the law could not do (and I could not do), in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). We have all failed to please God. Our thoughts, our actions, our emotions have betrayed us, but we discover in Romans 8:9 that we “are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” and in me.
“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). When you trust in Jesus Christ, you have – everything! Yes, life contains sickness, trouble, divorce, death, loss, wars, hunger and even worse. But we need to get this life into perspective. It’s very real and what we lose here is often gone for good, but this life, this place is not our true, our final home. To be in eternity, as Asaph, the author of Psalm 74 teaches, is “like a dream when one awakes.” That’s Verse 20, and the whole Psalm expresses the author’s concern that the “wicked” seem to do much better in life than God’s people. But then he saw that true reality comes AFTER this life and what we think of as “real” only seems that way because we can’t compare it adequately. Compared to eternity, it’s like a dream. He concludes in Verses 24 and 26, “You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory… God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever,” he observed.
When we read Romans 8:16-17, our Verses for today, we discover that the Spirit of God, who lives IN those who trust in Jesus Christ, is bearing witness to us, to others and to God that we are His children. Do you catch the impact of those words? We are children of the King, we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” By trusting in the Lord, we become members of HIS family, inheriting everything that is of importance – forever; if only we have faith in the Son, living out our lives as He directs, accepting the suffering that we may be led to experience. The suffering is only for right now. The glory He offers is – forever. Will you trust in Him and be thankful to Him?
Lord, there is much I do not understand, but I see my need of You. Forgive me that I have not been thankful, but I do thank You now and place my faith, my trust in You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
