God's Holy Fire: 'A Foretaste of Future Glory!'

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

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.
— Romans 8:22-23 NLT

Key Thought

As beautiful and diverse as our world is, we know deep inside us that there is something broken about it. Disease, disasters, decay, and death haunt us, even mock us. Our bodies remind us. Disasters make us aware of this reality. Every fund drive to fight some horrible disease awakens us to this truth. But the Holy Spirit's work within us and for us and the promise of the Spirit's presence within us guarantee us that something perfect, not fractured and not vulnerable to decay, is coming. We long for it. We wait in eager hope for it. God has promised it. And we will celebrate it in the Father's presence with new bodies, fully released from sin and suffering. The Spirit is not just our guarantee of that coming perfection but is also our taste of our future glory.

Today's Prayer

O Father, thank you for all that you have made. Yet I know, dear Father, that something is broken in my world and that this brokenness invades my daily life. So I thank you for the Holy Spirit who is my assurance of release from what is broken and release to something that is truly more glorious than I can imagine. In Jesus' name, I thank and praise you. Amen.

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20 Related Resources by Heartlight

Adoption as Sons
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"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the....."
A Foretaste of Glory
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"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..."
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"Not only [is all creation groaning under its bondage to decay], but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for...."
Romans 8:23
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"Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."
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Illustration

Illustration of Romans 8:22-23 NLT — 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.

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About This Devotional

God's Holy Fire is a daily devotional about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Thoughts and Prayer for God's Holy Fire are written by Phil Ware.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked MESSAGE are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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