March 9 – Romans 8:12-30
Lesson: He Guarantees
Dear Lord, bless our time with you today. Meet us where we are at, guide our minds, and hold our hearts as we search for Your truth.
First, do your own quiet time with God and 4R journaling. When you are complete, come back here for the lesson.
Request Gods’ help
Read Romans 8:12-30
Record a verse that stands out to you
Respond to God
Today’s lesson will be brief. Rest, because longer lessons are coming! Before we head into our lesson let’s look at Ephesians 1:13-14.
“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Yesterday we talked about how the Holy Spirit seals us. Today’s ministry almost mirrors that but I felt it should have its own day. Seal and guarantee really do go together as you really can’t have one without the other. While the seal shows the promise; the outward evidence of the obligation to buy, the sample of what is to come. The Spirit of guarantee, though, gives us certainty that He will keep those promises.
So, what does God pledge? He pledges that He will fulfill His promise, He will give us spiritual bodies, and He will give us inheritance. And we are in obligation to the Spirit, because we are guaranteed all these promises. We are guaranteed to not be tied to our sinful nature, to our old selves; we are tied to God and our new lives! God has made some incredible promises to us. And some of those would be completely unbelievable without the Spirit reassuring us that it is in fact so. Consider just how often doubt or worry fills us up, can you image how much more so it would be without the Spirit of God within us?
“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Romans 8:12-17
You are not alone. You have the Guarantor who has staked His claim on you. He has given you a promise of inheritance and He has not yet once failed to break a promise. You are not alone, you are not absent of fellowship with the King of Kings. Your place in His kingdom has been guaranteed. You are the furthest from being alone as one could ever be.
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You for You are the giver of life. We thank You for You have given us that life! Because of You we can live a life never again to be apart from You. Our adoption is sealed, we have been guaranteed. And we are Yours.
(Further reading: 2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:4)
What’s next?
As the Spirit leads, in the comment section below, share what He has laid on your heart.
Then join us again tomorrow to learn about the ministry of guarding.
1 Comment. Leave new
My verse: And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
My response: (Explanation: Just heard the news that a friend’s husband is with the Lord after years of suffering here on earth, which drew me to this verse this morning.)
Oh Lord, my friend’s husband – crippled for years by a dreadful disease – is now released from sin and suffering, his body whole and well. I thank You that death has lost its sting for we who believe. Instead, he has been ushered into freedom and wholeness and Your amazing Presence. Someday, I will be able to hear music again that actually sounds beautiful. And I’ll be able to sing again! My disability of hearing loss is so small, yet even in that … I long for the day when I’ll get that new body. Thank You for the glorious and sure hope we have in You!