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The Word of God says:

Romans 8:26-27 (NASB)
²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

My reflections on the Word of God:

There is one thing that believers share and that one thing is that we all suffer and struggle for deliverance from corruption.

Today we continue to look at this passage that shows us how prayer and the Holy Spirit delivers and saves us.

Yesterday our focus was on the keyword prayer. Today we will add the keyword of groaning. We first notice this word in an earlier verse.

Romans 8:23 (NASB)
²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

The suffering and struggling Christian has the greatest resource available to us to help us in our time of need. When we take our burdens to God in prayer we are following the example of our Savior. While He lived in the world He groaned and He prayed.

Mark 7:32-35 (NASB)
³² They brought* to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored* Him to lay His hand on him.
³³ Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;
³⁴ and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said* to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”
³⁵ And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

In our focal passage for today we see that the Holy Spirit groans for us. The Spirit of God living in us groans with us and shares the burden of our weakness.

Romans 8:26 (NASB)
²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

When the subject is prayer, we need help. When the subject is suffering, we need help. Whatever we face in this life we never have to face it alone. When we know Jesus we can come to the Father in the name of Jesus, and with the help of the Holy Spirit. What a powerful team we have to help us when we pray. We have the help of the Savior and the Comforter. Let us pray to the Father, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and in the name of Jesus.

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I offer up to You today the praise, the honor, and the glory that You so richly deserve.

Father God, You are such a loving Father, and I am so thankful for the privilege of being able to come to You in the name of Jesus. For if it was not for Jesus in my life I would not have any right to approach Your throne as a child of God. And without the help of the Holy Spirit I would not be able to pray according the will of my heavenly Father.

Father God, I pray that You would look deep into our hearts, and meet our needs according to Your divine will and purpose for our lives. Lord, we give You our load of burdens, and ask You to help us dear God, in the name of Him who gave His all for us, Jesus our Savior and Lord.

1 Peter 5:7 (NASB)
⁷ casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

He Knows Just How Much You Can Bear (Click on link below for lyrics):

He Knows Just How Much You Can Bear

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:26-27 (NASB)
²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

My reflections on the Word of God:

The keyword in our focal passage for today is prayer. The power and influence of prayer is one of the great mysteries of the bible. God in His sovereignty has chosen to use prayer as the means for His people to communicate with Him. This passage envisions that His people are actually engaged in prayer. Someone has rightly said, “In order for prayer to be answered we must pray”.

As the believer faces suffering in this world we have the greatest and most powerful resource that is available. There is nothing in this world that compares to the power of a child of God talking to his or her heavenly Father.

We have the right and it is a privilege of God’s people to come to God in prayer. There is nothing that we will ever face in life that is beyond the reach of prayer. Our heavenly Father is able to help us in our time of need, and He is willing to help us.

The heavenly Father’s door is always open. He bids you to come to Him. He even gives you His private phone number, and He promises that His line is never busy, and that He will always answer. You just have to call Him.

Matthew 11:28 (NASB)
²⁸ “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Jeremiah 33:3 (NASB)
³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Father God, my dear Father, I praise and thank You that You are a God who loves and cares for Your beloved people.

Father God, I count it as an esteemed privilege to have an open ended invitation to come to You and to call upon You in prayer. I praise and thank You for the unlimited reach of prayer.

Lord God Almighty, I pray that Your people will learn how to pray effectively, and that they will be motivated to pray often. I pray that we will learn to pray about everything, and to worry about nothing. I pray that we will learn to take our burdens to the Lord, and leave them with You.

Leave It There (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/e/leaveitt.htm

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:24-25 (NASB)
²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

My reflections on the Word of God:

The word hope is very prominent in our focal passage for today. This hope is different than the hope of the world. The world’s hope may or may not come to pass.

However, the hope of the believer is entirely different. It is a hope that is sure and steadfast, and the thing hope for is assured of happening. The believer’s hope comes from within. It is the work of the Holy Spirit of God in our hearts. The believer has already experienced the presence of the Spirit, and the work of the Spirit. The evidence of the Spirit’s presence is the fruit of the Spirit.

Hope is essential in the Christian life. It is the way God desires to have His people relate to Him. Without hope we would not need to trust in God if we were already perfect. We would not have to hope for what we had already received. In this present world we only experience a taste of what is to come. The desire for more causes us to draw near to God.

The Lord desires that His people believe in Him, trust in Him, and hope in Him. Notice in the following scriptures how hope is an essential part of our relationship with God. In these verses we find that hope saves us, it enables us to endure suffering, and it is the gift of the Holy Spirit to us.

Romans 8:24-25 (NASB)
²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Romans 15:13 (NASB)
¹³ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Father God, my dear Father, I praise and thank You for Your loving concern for us, and for the provisions that You have made for us.

I thank You Lord that I have already received the gift of salvation. Lord, I thank You for providing the means for my redemption.

Ephesians 1:7 (NASB)
⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

Hebrews 10:22 (NASB)
²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

I Am Thine, O Lord (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

I Am Thine, O Lord - MIDI and Lyrics - Sacred Hymns - Bible Study Charts.com - Free MIDI Hymns

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:23-27 (NASB)
²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

My reflections on the Word of God:

Today I expanded our look to include the context of the first verse of this passage that was our focus yesterday. In doing so I wanted to see and feel what Paul and his first century readers saw and felt.

What they saw was two views of life. They saw life in the present world, and they saw life in the world to come.

The human condition in the present world is the same for us today as it was for them in their day. There is a battle on two fronts. One front is the battle with our own human nature which is evil. The other front is that the present world is one of death and decay.

However, the goodnews is the other view of life, and that is life in the world to come. While we live in this world, we also live in Christ. Consequently, as we live in the world we can see beyond this world. We can look up and see our God and Father, and our Savior, Jesus the Christ.

When we look at this world we see what the hymn writer Henry Lyte saw when he wrote, “Change and decay in all around I see; O thou who changes not, abide with me. When we look around us we see death and decay. But when we look up to God we see the power of God’s love, mercy, and grace to us and for us.

I am so glad that because I have trusted in Jesus for my salvation that I have the divine power of God living in me. And His iron clad promise is that He will always be with us.  Whether it was the first century disciples or God’s people today, we need the Lord, and we have Him.

Luke 24:29 (NASB)
²⁹ But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them.

Hebrews 13:5 (NASB)
⁵ Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I praise and thank You for Your steadfast love for Your people. Lord, I am so grateful that You live in us, and that You will never leave us.

Father God, without You we are nothing. But, we don’t have to live without You in our lives. I am so glad that the Word says Jesus will never leave us or forsake us, and where Jesus lives the Father and the Spirit of God also lives.

Abide with Me (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

Abide with Me

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:23 (NASB)
²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

My reflections on the Word of God:

Today we will take a deeper look at the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. It is the Spirit of God living in the believer, and the fruit of the Spirit that causes us to groan and ache for more of the power of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.

Romans 8:9 (NASB)
⁹ However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)
²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The working of the Spirit in our lives and the fruit of the Spirit being produced in our lives and flowing out of us causes us to long for more. That longing causes us to groan and to ache for the day when our body and soul will be ushered into the presence of God.

2 Corinthians 5:2 (NASB)
² For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,

Revelation 21:4-5 (NASB)
⁴ and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
⁵ And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said*, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I praise and thank You for sending Your Son to redeem my soul from corruption.

Father God, because of Jesus I can sing with assurance this song of faith and hope. Lord, I sing this as my song of praise and thanksgiving to your most holy and righteous name.

Is My Name Written There (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

Is My Name Written There?

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:23-25 (NASB)
²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

My reflections on the Word of God:

In the passage preceding our focal passage for today we discovered that creation groans. Yesterday we saw that there is pain, suffering, and death. The reason for this is the sin of Adam.

Romans 8:22 (NASB)
²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

In our focal passage for today we see that believers also groan. We see this in verse twenty three, and the reason that we groan is because we have received a taste of that which is to come. The reason why we groan is because we have experienced “the first fruits of the Spirit”.

The office work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we have already experienced, and which we will continue to experience in this life gives us a taste of what is to come. T.J. Bach wrote the following about the work of the Spirit in the life of believers.

“The Holy Spirit longs to reveal to you the deeper things of God. He longs to love through you. He longs to work through you. Through the blessed Holy Spirit you may have: strength for every duty, wisdom for every problem, comfort in every sorrow, and joy in His overflowing service”.

The joy that we experience down here just wets our appetite for what we shall experience when we exchange our life in the land of the dying for our life in the land of the living. This world is not our home.

Philippians 3:20-21 (NASB)
²⁰ For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
²¹ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Our Father in heaven, I praise and thank You that we can live in this world and endure all of the pain and the suffering because of the hope that we have for a better day.

Father God, we know that the suffering we face today is temporary. However, the glory that we will experience will last forever.

O That Will Be Glory (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

O That Will Be Glory

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:19-22 (NASB)
¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

My reflections on the Word of God:

Today we transition from a focus on the suffering we experience to the suffering that the entire creation is experiencing.

The whole creation is subject to corruption. All creations suffer from deterioration, decline, damage, decay, decomposition, disintegration, dissolution, demise, disease, and death.

The sin of the first man, Adam, have linked man and the creation. The fall of man and the judgment of Adam resulted in corruption of man and creation.

Genesis 3:17-19 (NASB)
¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
¹⁸ “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
¹⁹ By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Romans 8:19-21 (NASB)
¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

We who are believers have hope, and the creation also has hope. The God who subjected them to corruption is the one who will deliver them.

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Father God, my dear Father, I praise and thank You for the blessed hope that we have because of our position in Christ.

Heavenly Father, I am comforted by the knowledge that You are in control. And, because of this knowledge I can live a life free of frustration at the suffering and struggles that I may face and that I see in the world.

He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

http://ingeb.org/spiritua/hesgotth.html

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:18 (NASB)
¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

My reflections on the Word of God:

The way that the people of God look at suffering is quite different than the way that the world looks at suffering. Our focal verse indicates that believers don’t focus on the daily suffering that they face by living in this present world. Instead the believer fixes their focus on the glory they will experience in the future.

The believer is able to endure the sufferings of this world because they know the glory that is awaiting them when they meet their Savior and Lord face to face. The suffering that we face in this present world prepares us to participate in the glory of our Savior.

1 Peter 1:6-7 (NASB)
⁶ In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
⁷ so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

2 Corinthians 4:15-18 (NASB)
¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
¹⁷ For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
¹⁸ while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I am so glad that the suffering and the struggles that we face in this world is not the whole story.

Father God, I thank You that the suffering that we face in this world will fade into insignificance at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

In The Sweet By and By (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

In The Sweet By and By

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:18 (NASB)
¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

My reflections on the Word of God:

The statement that the Apostle Paul makes about suffering in this verse is one that believers of every age can heartily agree by saying Amen. Suffering is the common lot of us all. In this verse suffering means all of the various forms that we suffer throughout our life. It may take the form of physical suffering like persecution, and it may take the form of suffering that comes from the struggle of our spirit to overcome the flesh and the world.

Since this is the common experience of all of us it behooves all of us to know what the bible has to say about this subject.

If we are not struggling in our life to overcome the spiritual struggles of life then we need to examine our faith to see if it is genuine.  The genuine believer struggles against everything that keeps him or her from living abundantly under the lordship of Christ.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NASB)
¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
¹⁷ For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I praise and thank You for the opportunities that this new day will bring. This is a day that we have never seen before. But, one thing that I do know that You are in charge of every day, and for this we give thanks and bless Your name.

Psalm 96:2 (NASB)
² Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

Psalm 118:24 (NASB)
²⁴ This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 103:1 (NASB)
¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

The Word of God says:

Romans 8:38-39 (NASB)
³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

My reflections on the Word of God:

In our focal passage today we will conclude our look at the ways in which God gives assurances to His beloved.

The picture that we see in this passage is a believer who can walk through this world with confidence and unfazed by anything that happens to them in this world.

They are able to walk through this world unfazed because they are walking in faith in God, and in the promises of God.

Why not be confident in such promises and assurances as we find in our focal passage? Why not be unfazed when the Lord has already done so much for us?

Consider each of the things described in our focal passage. Look at them one at a time, and let them sink deep into your mind and your heart. The first fear that we can remove from the table is the fear of death because God’s promise is that it cannot separate us from God’s love.

John 5:24 (NASB)
²⁴ “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

You might say that is fine, but how about the here and now. I’m glad you asked that question because the next promise is that nothing in life can separate us from God’s Love.

We can be confident that nothing in life or in death can separate us from God’s love. The Apostle Paul lived an unfazed life, and we can do the same.

2 Corinthians 5:6-9 (NASB)
⁶ Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—
⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight—
⁸ we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
⁹ Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

My prayer in response to the Word of God:

Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I praise and thank You for the confidence that we can have in a loving and unchanging God, and in the promises of Your Word.

Father God, I pray that by faith we will endeavor to walk in obedience to the will of God, and to the pathway that our Savior leads us.

In the Garden (Click on link below for lyrics and midi):

In the Garden > MIDI | Charles A. Miles / Charles A. Miles