We’re already a week away from our weekend in prayer. What a great time it was, though. While we were there I asked the group to share thoughts about the weekend for the blog here if they wanted. Ade Oyemola took me up on it. Thanks Ade!
Here’s what she had to say:
“Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).
As we read through Romans 8, I was comforted by the fact that the Spirit groans within us. At times, when we do not know what to pray for, the Spirit provides the groanings that cannot be uttered. It made me think: it’s okay to not have words. Some things need groanings and do not call for words- possibly because there aren’t any. It says, the Holy Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26). After discussing this section of scripture, we prayed. Brian prayed for anybody who may have been feeling like their life was just a groan. Like they dragged themselves there to the retreat. That resonated with me. During that time, I felt like something broke. There was a heaviness that I had been carrying, but whatever that weight was, it’s gone. Praise God!
In all these things, sufferings, trials, tribulation, distress, the things that cause us to not know what we should pray for, the things that require the Spirit of God to intercede with groanings for us, it is in these things that God works, and He works for the good of them that love God, to them that are the called, according to His purpose.
In addition to the above, the Lord used Hebrews 12:2-3 to encourage me and remind me to endure. The author of Hebrews writes, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” I was encouraged to look unto Jesus Christ. The sufferings and the trials are part of the privilege of being a child of God (2 Timothy 2:3). No, they are not the end of the story, but part of the story within which God works.
While the sufferings are inevitable, the Lord is using it to work in us something for our good. Although the sufferings may have an appearance of being defeated, or seems as though we are “accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Romans 8:26), the truth is, in spite of what it looks like, we are “more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). God is for us. He predestinated us, called us, justified us, glorified us (Romans 8:30), is praying through us by His Spirit (Romans 8:26), and interceding for us from heaven (Romans 8:34). It’s victory all around. May He give us strength to endure and grace to see beyond the groanings of our present trials.