God Morning! August 6 / We’re Pregnant!

God Morning! August 6

We’re Pregnant!

Romans 8:22-39 the Message

^22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

The longer we wait, the more joyful we become. What? This makes no sense. And yet I have experienced this.

(Not when I was pregnant, mind you. It was more like this: The longer I waited the grouchier I became.)

I remember a time within the last year when I was waiting. And nothing happened. And as I waited, the situation didn’t change. However, I changed. And oh my goodness, it was freeing. I totally let go. Has the situation changed yet? NO. But I no longer care anymore. I have moved on. Praise God! If God wants it changed, He will change it!

And as our country continues to make decisions that are directly against God’s word, and as wrong starts to seem right and right starts to seem wrong, I am waiting. As many of my Christian friends shock me by seeming to be unfazed with the atrocities that are being carried out in America, I am waiting. Waiting for God’s wrath to fall. Just as God’s wrath fell on the Children of Israel in the Old Testament when they, time after time, went directly against God’s word.

I feel on edge. And yet I feel closer to Him than ever. I feel deep soul-stirring joy. Because I know there is a remnant of people who are following His truth. And in the middle of the heart wrenching fog of confusion, God is promising to shield and protect His remnant.

^26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

When I am crushed and heartbroken about it all, I can fall to my knees and pour my heart out to Jesus. All in tongues. Because many times, I have no idea how to pray. I have no idea what to say. But the Holy Spirit does the praying for me.

^29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

God has called us by name. God has set us right with Him. God is establishing us. Wow! It can’t get any better than this!!!

^31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

I simply can’t lose. Nothing fazes me. Nothing. I am strong and steadfast in the love of my God. Sure, I may be killed in cold blood. But I have a confidence that (if that does happen) my Savior, the One who died for me, will carry me off to be with Him in the clouds.

I am IN LOVE! IN LOVE with my Jesus.

“Dear Jesus, thank You for encouraging me again today. Even though I am far from perfect, I can be assured that You are perfecting me. You are encouraging me not to worry about things that I can’t do anything about. You are encouraging me to simply pray. And speak in tongues. Cry out to You. And You will hear. Every earnest prayer that comes from a repentant heart. Praise You, Jesus! How I love You!!! AMEN.”