5-9-2022

 Good Morning All!

Romans 8:26; “At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words.”

      Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you are unsure what to say? Like when your nephew brings his girlfriend to meet you and she dresses and acts like Miley Cyrus and his parents ask, “What do you think?”  Or your boss’ new comb over is really goofy and he asks how he looks?  Or someone redecorates their home, and you are at a loss to comment on it. There are times like this that most of us would just stutter or mutter or cough. We just don’t know what to say.

    Sometimes this happens because we don’t understand the conversation. I get this when I get talking about how my smartphone works. (I hate it that my phone is smarter than I am). When I talk to the gals who sold me the phone, I nod and agree but don’t really know what is going on. Sometimes the discussions involve a foreign language or phrases, and we just mutter some gibberish to go along with it. We cannot express in words what we want to say.

     There are times in our life when this is painfully true. What do you say when the doctor tells you that you have cancer and there is nothing they can do? What do you say when the job you had and loved for years is now gone? What do you say when the one who you have always loved just doesn’t respond to you anymore? What do you say when you cannot express in words what is in your heart?

    We know we should go to God with our fears, our pain, and our despair; but what do you say when the words are not there and the pain in your heart is too great? Too often we follow the theory that if you don’t know what to say then don’t say anything. But God tells us something different. God shows his love for us by hearing our cries and our pain even when we cannot express them. Even when we sit up all night, not saying a word but feeling weight of the whole world upon our shoulders, not knowing what to say, God hears you and he brings to us his comfort.

    He gives us the faith to stand. It might not always seem like it, but he gives us the faith to stand. The pain will be real but temporary; God’s promise of hope and comfort are everlasting. He will give us comfort for now, using his fellow redeemed children as his hands, arms, and shoulders. He is our God, and he has promised to hear us and to care for us even when we do not have the words.

Dearest Father, often our cries are unspoken for we have no words to express our pain and our loss. Yet you hear us and through our pain you bring us comfort and you bring us hope. Hear our cry and hear the cry of our brothers and sisters who feel extraordinary pain right now.  All this we ask in the precious name of Jesus, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret