Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

December 4– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“We groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our body.”

—Romans 8:23

This groaning of which the Apostle Paul speaks is universal among God’s holy ones; we all feel it. It is not the groan of murmuring or complaint; it is more expression of desire than of distress. Having received a down payment of our inheritance, we desire the remaining portion coming to us. We are sighing that our entire being— spirit, soul, and body— may be set free from the last traces of the fall. We long to put off corruption, weakness, and dishonor, and to wrap ourselves in incorruption, immortality, and glory. We groan for the manifestation of our adoption as the children of God.

“We groan within ourselves.” It is not the hypocrite’s groan, which comes from outwardly posing as a saint while inwardly knowing one is sinful and wretched. Our sighs are sacred things, too holy for us to explain to others. We keep our innermost longings for our Lord alone to hear.

The apostle also says that we are “waiting.” We must not to be irritable, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, “Let me die.” Nor are we to whimper and sigh for the end of life because we are tired of work or wish to escape from our present sufferings. We are to groan for glorification, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the One we love to open it and take us away to himself.

This “groaning” is a test. You can judge a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth—they worship money. Some groan continually under the troubles of life— they are merely impatient. But the man who sighs after God, who is uneasy until he is made like Christ, that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan for the coming of the Lord and the resurrection which he will bring to us. [M&E]