While We Live In These Earthly Bodies, We Groan And Sigh

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While We Live

In These Earthly Bodies,

We Groan And Sigh

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5

1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 

2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 

3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.

4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 

5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

Observation

I woke up this morning … Hallelujah! ... and then I immediately felt some familiar aches and pains. My friend, waking up to aches and pains sure beats the alternative! I am not afraid to die, but to quote Billy Graham, “I dread the thought of getting out of this body!”

I like the way that the Apostle Paul describes our earthly bodies that we have now as simply tents, but our new eternal body made for us by God, he says, that will be our house!

This old body of mine is temporary. It is just a tent!

I have a mansion, and it is a new body waiting for me when I get to Heaven. The Apostle Paul describes my present body as fragile comparing it to a “jar of clay” (2 Cor. 4:7). And it sure is!

...

Please pray with me for a young man who is probably in surgery right now at Tampa General. He has a tumor in his abdomen that surgeons today will try to remove. It is a very difficult operation.

Application

I will continue to encourage those going through physical suffering and I will also pray for them.

How about you?

2 Corinthians 4:10

10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I know so many who are physically suffering right now. I pray for healing. Help them to trust in You. Draw them close during this time of suffering and pain. I know that You never waste a hurt. Fill them with Your Spirit. Give them a supernatural peace as they trust in You.

Daily Bible Reading: Ruth 1,2; Psalms 53, 61; 2 Corinthians 5

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