When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” – John 6:5
Jesus teaches his disciples about the real hunger of this world, and it isn’t for bread alone; it’s for the Bread of Life that only Jesus can provide.
When we look to Jesus for strength and grace to live for today and tomorrow, then we will not be disappointed. Jesus can fill us with joy and light by walking with us in our depression, helping us through difficult economic times, and weeping with us in our grief.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that as Christ died and was buried and then rose again, we too, being united with Jesus through our Baptisms have gone with Jesus into death and we will go beyond to eternal life with him as well! This is not of our own doing and we can’t do it alone – without Christ. But, we need not try it on our own, for we have the Jesus who pilots us through death and into eternal life.
Someday, Paul tells us, we will be changed, freed completely from sin. We will live up to our potential as human beings. Physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually we will be whole, complete, mature, fully ourselves, and fully alive. And so we press on in this life, even when it’s painful, even when it’s difficult, knowing that someday we will be the glorious people God created us to be.
The Bible promises us that someday the God, who created this world, will re-create it, free it from its bondage to decay so that it becomes the glorious place God meant it to be in the first place. This world has never lived up to its potential as a home for human beings in community with God, but someday it will. That’s God’s promise, a promise that you can bank on. It’s a promise solid enough to hang your hopes on.
We could spend a long time analyzing the suffering of this world, but that’s not Paul’s purpose in Romans 8. Paul is simply being a realist. Paul had suffered. His readers were suffering. And anyone who attempts to follow Christ in this world will suffer. But Paul was confident that God’s purposes would prevail, that the process of spiritual transformation would be completed, and that he and we would become all that God intended. We can be confident as well.
Have you ever wondered what kind of person you would be if you lived up to your potential in Christ? Have you ever wondered what God had in mind as he shaped you in the womb? If you are a Christian, then the Holy Spirit is living in you and you are in the process of transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18).
If we think of love as an intention, it is easy to see that we can show love toward our partner, our friend, even a stranger. We can send the love we have received from God toward another.
