Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 7th September 2022 | Wednesday Message
Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 7th September 2022
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Topic:Â Hope on Tiptoe
Getting out into nature is serious business for the Tadas.
This is one Maryland flower that begins to wilt if she can’t escape the confines of Los Angeles now and then for short forays among God’s handiwork.
Yes, my wheelchair limits our excursions, but it doesn’t stop us! Ken and I still love to go camping and boating and fishing – or just exploring.
It could be a desert…we don’t live too far from the Mojave and always look forward to desert camping in the early spring. You should see the blooms on the cactus and the yucca plants!
Or the mountains. If we want to catch a breath of fresh air, a short drive along the Los Angeles Crest Highway tops the San Gabriel mountains and offers vistas of craggy peaks and Ponderosa pines.
And then there’s the ocean. Only twenty minutes from our house. We’ll often take a bag lunch on a Saturday afternoon, park on some cliff, and watch the seagulls swirl and swoop along the crest of the breakers. We always return home with spirits revived and refreshed. Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 7th September 2022
Yes, nature is personal to me. And did you know nature even has its own personal verse in Scripture? Romans 8:19 tells us that
The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
Phillips renders it like this:
The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own.
On tiptoe. In some mysterious way, the flowers and plants and animals and seascapes and landscapes wait in eager expectation for a glory yet to be revealed. Paul tells a little more about this anticipation:
The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God! – Romans 8:20-21 (Phillips)
The creation is groaning and longing for the day when God will release it from its bondage and usher in a new era with Christ as King. Can you hear the sighing in the wind? Can you feel the heavy silence in the mountains? Can you sense the restless longing in the sea? Something’s coming…something better.
But consider this: If the creation has an earnest expectation, surely we believers – the sons and daughters of God – should have nothing less! If the whole inanimate and brute creation is eagerly expecting, earnestly looking forward to the appearing of Jesus and all that means, this same kind of hope should be much more evident in you and me.
How’s your hope today?
Do you find yourself longing and looking forward to the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ? We mustn’t wait in a dull sort of way with a ho-hum attitude. We must rejoice in our hope. It’s that joy that makes us eagerly expect – like a big Saint Bernard straining at his leash. Anticipation means stretching our necks. Yearning. Fervently hoping. Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 7th September 2022
If that’s the sort of attitude that nature has about the coming of that great day, you and I can learn a thing or two from the creation around us. Next time you see a ray of sunlight suddenly pierce through a heavy, dark, afternoon sky, think about Romans 8:19.
If nature waits on tiptoe for the coming of Jesus, you and I shouldn’t be caught flat-footed!
The Glorious Pursuit
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
Passion longs for that day. Faith believes it will come. Are both of these living and growing inside you? Do you want heaven? Are you confident that it’s your destiny? If your focus is on Jesus Christ, then your answer to both is increasingly YES! Because he is the essence of heaven’s joy. And he is the assurance of heaven’s reality for you. He is both the source and the object of your passionate faith.