Today’s passage: Romans 8:26-30
Helpful thoughts:
- Our imaginations of the greatness of Christ’s return and our glorification all fall short of how wonderful it will really be. In the same way (“Likewise”), our prayers fall short of all they could really be.
- But no worries, because the Spirit of God prays perfectly for us on our behalf!
- The Holy Spirit knows everything about you, inside and out. He also knows everything about God, of course. So, He always prays exactly what we need, as we need it, in perfect harmony with the will of God.
- The promise of verse 28 is for Christians (“Those who are called”) and the “good” is to conform us to the image of Christ, which is the “good” that is not worth comparing to all the bad of this life (Verse 18).
- Definition of terms:
- Foreknew – God established a relationship with you (He knew you) before the foundation of the world.
- Predestined – God chose you to be His child.
- Called – God’s effectual working where you were drawn into a relationship with Him.
- Justified – You are declared, “Not guilty” and because Christ’s righteousness has been given to you, you are also declared, “Righteous” in God’s sight.
- Glorified – You will be made to be just like Christ. All sin will be gone. Your heart’s desires will be completely pure. You will have a resurrection body just like Christ’s forevermore.
- Definition of terms:
Questions to consider:
- How does this passage encourage you to pray with humility, but also confidence and endearment? Can you mess this up? If you pray something outside of God’s will, what will happen? What is the Spirit doing? What will definitely come to pass?
- How much of our salvation is God’s doing? Why is this so important to understand and accept with all humility, especially when compared with a passage like Romans 3:10-11? If we would struggle to “like” the idea of God’s sovereignty in our salvation, what might we need to understand or even repent of? If someone were to say, ‘I can’t believe in a God like that,” what logical mistake would they be making? Does God exist the way He does because we can believe in Him?
- The all-knowing, all-powerful, loving, eternal God is praying for you and guaranteeing your safe arrival to a glorious eternity with Him…how safe are you? This world is a wreck, and we all bare the scars in different ways and in different severities. Some of the scars are of our own doing. What is God doing about it?