Tight Weaves

I was having a quiet time with the Lord today and praying regarding some difficulties various people I love are experiencing right now.  As I was reading Romans 8 I felt the the Lord prompt me to share with you this truth.  God loves you!  

Of course, the whole chapter is Good!  I was focusing on verse 24 and 25.  "We were given this hope when we were saved.  (If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it.  But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)"  It is so simple, I almost missed an important truth!  God gives us a hope.  In the midst of things that we don't understand, circumstances that don't make sense, prayers that don't seem to get answered, God, through His Holy Spirit, gives us hope.  Look at verse 25 again.  It says we must wait patiently for it and wait with confidence.  We are not to give up in despair, we are to press forward with confidence.  Do we believe God or the circumstances?  

Verses 26 goes on to explain that the Holy Spirit helps us when we feel like giving up.  He intercedes for us when we don't know how.  He intercedes with a language the Father understands and with a heart that is in total harmony with the Father.  Verse 29 says that God knew his people in advance and chose them to be like his Son.  If they are called and chosen to be like His Son, then He called them to come to Him (have intimate fellowship).  That fellowship calls those people to have right standing with God the Father.  If we have right standing with Him, we then receive His glory.

The question is not, why didn't you do the things I asked you to do? or why didn't I get what I wanted?  The question is this, Is my life or the life of the one I am praying for in right standing with You God?  Do I see your glory?  If the answer is "No", then we need to start at square one again and realize that God has called us.  He desires intimate fellowship with Him.  Through intimate fellowship, we can have right standing with God the Father and see His Glory!  Verse 18 says, "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later."

Stuff happens to us and to those we love, but God loves us through those things.  His Glory encompasses us.  If we will take our eyes off of the "stuff" and onto the Glory, we will have right perspective and experience the peace we need to get through the "stuff".  

Be encouraged!