Lord are you listening

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I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that  the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what they already have? 

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 

 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 

 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; Perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the 

Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 

Rather, as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way:

•  In great endurance; 
• In troubles, 
• Hardships and distresses;  
• In beatings, 
• Imprisonments and riots; 
• In hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;  
• In purity, understanding, patience and kindness; 
• In the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;  
• In truthful speech and in the power of God; 
• With weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 

Through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 

Known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.