Romans 8:25: But If We Hope For What We Do Not See, We Wait For It With Patience

Romans 8:25
[25] But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (ESV)

I love Christmas. I remember being a small child waiting for Christmas to come. Somewhere in November the three big department store Christmas catalogs would come out. I would page through the J.C. Penney, Sears, and Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogs, pausing to tell my parents what particular toy I could not live without.

From the time those catalogs arrived until Christmas morning seemed like an eternity. There would be special parties at school. There were Christmas programs both at school and church, but they all just seemed to taunt me that it was almost Christmas, but not yet! I hoped for Christmas, but I did not see it yet.

We hope for what we do not see. We know what it will be like. We have read the catalog. Scripture describes for us something far better than toys under a tree. We are told of a place where there will be no more suffering. There will be no more sin. The greatest thing that we hope for is to be face to face with the one who died to set us free from sin.

Paul says that we wait with patience. I would love to say that I always wait with patience for the promise of God. Sometimes my human struggle gets in the way and I am again like that small child thinking that what was promised will never come. It is precisely at that moment when I need to look back at the faithfulness of God. He has never failed at any promise he has made. I can wait a bit longer.

Are you overwhelmed by suffering? Struggling with sin? Desiring more than anything to see the Savior face to face? Wait just a little longer. Read his Word like a small child looking through the Christmas catalog. We are almost there.