Romans 8:22-27 verse 26
Saints do you know we all moan and groan? That we moan when we open our mouths to complain. We groan even when we have sat down for a while and go to get up. We moan when things do not go the way we think they should. We groan when kids, wayward children do things that we think they should not. You know because as a parent we can see or so we think, the pitfall of danger for that decision. Yet we continue to moan and groan.
This passage of scripture tells us that we together as sinners go through the pains of denying our will and submitting to God. We do not always do so willingly. We groan against that willful submission. We do not always like it. However, in doing so we are more and more hoping and depending upon God in this transformation process. Like babies who open their eyes, their newborn eyes or like when they first try to walk. This new way of living for this body is foreign. This new way of living is exactly that, new. In it being new to us we are out of our comfort zone. Being out of our comfort zone of course there are moans and groans. This human body, like the children of Israel, likes the creature comforts of home. The creature comfort of the familiar. However, we must persevere and not give up, but continue to walk forward in this newness of life.
We are not to lean on what we can see and know as we have in the past, but to hope, have faith and believe in what we cannot see. Because what we cannot see is the Holy Spirit at work with our natural eye. With our new body we can not see the Holy Spirit at work when we are not fighting against it. When we are not moaning and groaning. So, as we are changing and transforming, don’t give up. Do not give up. Do not be condemned when we take one step back. Keep persevering in this new body by taking two steps forward. Let us keep persevering by waiting, believing, and knowing that even in contrast everything is working out for our good as it says in Romans 8:28. So let us stop moaning and groaning, because in out weak sinful state the Holy Spirit is still there. The Holy Spirit’s strength is where we lean when we are weak.
Some may ask what moaning and groaning do I need to stop? Is excessive drinking a moan? May I offer a yes. Is drug abuse a groan? May I offer a yes. Is overeating a groan? May I offer a yes, as gluttony is a sin. The moan and groan to make it easy for us all is; anything that we say, do or think that displeases God. That saints is the moaning and groaning that we do and must stop.
How do we do this one may ask? We do this through prayer, fasting and turning it all over to the Holy Spirit. It tells us here in verse 26, that “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.
The Holy Spirit in the trinity is God and knows it all. So, in knowing us, where we are on our Christian journey, what slips us up and trips us up as saints. The Holy Spirit knows the sins in us buried so deep He has to do major heart surgery. Knowing how we react to others when overwhelmed, knowing how we can be when we get tired, hungry, sleepy, or just down right plan irritated. The Holy Spirit can go in on our behalf and make it all better. Smoothing over those feathers we have ruffled. Although, we weren’t prepared to say a kind encouraging word in that moment, one comes tripping off our tongue out of our mouth anyway. Although, we have a right to be mad at that co-worker we find that when go to bless them out with our word, the Holy Spirit has us speaking blessings instead.
You see saints when we seek the Lord to help us stop the moaning and groaning, the best of who and what He is, that promise, that gift, that reward is on display for all to see Him. You see saints there is nothing like that promise. There is nothing that compares. So, if our moan or groan is lying and we want to stop. Turn it over to the Lord. If our moaning is cheating our brothers and sisters and we want to stop, turn it over to the Lord. If our moaning and groaning is any sin that we want to stop today, let us turn it over to the Lord because His promise is that He will fight our battles. Let Him fight our battle and ask Him today, Lord help me to stop moaning and groaning.
UniquelyDesigned1 