Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope[b] for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) – Romans 8:18-25 (NLT)
Like it or not, infertility teaches us how to wait.
It’s easy to view waiting as a negative thing, but the Bible shows us that waiting is an integral part of the Christian life.
Romans 8:18-25 tells us that who we are now is not who we will ultimately be. Our bodies will one day be healed and whole. Our sinful natures will be perfected. But we must wait until Christ returns.
When we accept Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. He enables us to experience hope and expectation in our waiting, instead of frustration and disappointment.
We can also take comfort in the fact that humans are not the only ones who “groan” in their waiting. All of creation groans, too (verse 22)! But our sufferings are not worth much compared to the glory and victory we will experience in the future (verse 18).
So let us pray for patience and ask the Holy Spirit to help us while we wait for our children, but let us also remember that what we are truly waiting for is Christ’s return and the completion of our salvation.
*I’m indebted to the notes on Romans 8:24 from the Reformation Study Bible, accessed via BibleGateway.com
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