A prayer based on Romans 8:18-27.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Loving and merciful God, We thank You that You are our Father and You sees us and You hear us. You know, Lord, how hard it is to follow Your Son. It is not easy living in this world, experiencing that suffering that is all around us, struggling against sin and temptation, sometimes even facing persecution because our faith in Him. We cry out to You in the brokenness and disappointment and loss and pain and sadness and grief. We cry out to You when it feels like it is too much to keep going, when yet again we give in and sin against You, when it appears that we are not making much progress in becoming like Christ, and say “How long?”

How long until Jesus will return? How long will our bodies groan as they are subject to fatigue and decay and death? How long until they will be renewed and restored to sinless perfection? How long will we have to keep fighting against sin? How long will our brothers and sisters face opposition and persecution? How long will all creation have to wait to be released from its bondage to decay and be transformed into a new heavens and a new earth? How long will we have to wait for all of God’s people to shine out in their resurrection bodies? How we long for the day when the trumpet will blast, the voice of the archangel will be heard, and Christ will descend from heaven with a shout?

We praise You that You are the God of hope, and You give hope to us, so that as we wait for this day, we can do so with confidence. That as we fight the good fight of faith, we can do so assured that our present sufferings will not compare with the future glory that awaits us. We thank You that however tough life is for us now, what is being prepared for us in the future is far greater. We thank You that as we struggle to pray in those times when we are weak, we have Spirit praying on our behalf, communicating the aching of our hearts, expressing our longings in line with Your will, and that He will continue to do so until the time comes when our Saviour will return and wipe every tear from our eyes.

Holy Spirit, fill us with this hope that what is ahead will more than make up for the difficulties in the present. Strengthen our belief that when Jesus returns we will not be condemned for our sins, because He has come to die for us and has taken the punishment of hell we deserve. Empower us to live out the new life that is ours in Christ. And assures again that we are children of a loving and merciful Father in heaven. May this enable us to keep running the race that has been marked out for us.

Amen.

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