Groaning -
Ever find yourself doing it?
Groaning, perhaps, because what lays ahead is not something that you particularly enjoy doing or want to do..
Perhaps because what you face is something you’re not terribly sure you’ll be able to do. It may prove too much to accomplish.
Or perhaps because something DID overwhelm you. It was too much and you buckled under. Caved in. Couldn’t do it.

Groaning - sometimes the groans are heavy; like when we sit collapsed in a chair in the corner of the funeral parlour, or in the surgical waiting room.
Sometimes they’re a bit lighter, like walking into class Monday morning and discovering that the threatened quiz in French has become a reality.

Generally speaking, when we’re into what we can call the "groan zone" of life, it’s good not to be alone. It’s good to have someone who can hold our hand while we wait for the results of surgery. It’s good to have people come by and visit us at the wake. If you’re going to have to prepare for exams, better when you can study with others.

I have a renovating job I’ve been putting off for a couple of years. Just thinking about it makes me groan. Someone came along and said, "Call me. I'll give you a hand." Suddenly the whole project seemed much more do-able.

Times of groaning.
Times of weakness.
We all face them - including in our prayer life.

As we mentioned last week, we’re going to take the first Sundays of 2000 to study a bit of what the Bible teaches regarding the world of prayer.

Last week we considered the foundation on which our prayer life needs to be built - a faith in Jesus Christ.

Which is good, and even somewhat easy when things go well.
But what about in the harder seasons? What about the times when we groan?
How do we handle prayer, even think about prayer in those times?

And they DO come, groaning times.
Romans 8 is very correct when it observes that we groan, and creation groans right along with us.
There are times in the lives of every single human being, male or female, young or old, believer or atheist – there are times when we feel crushed by the weight of our circumstances, or overwhelmed by what confronts us, when we cringe at situations in which we find ourselves.
We groan.

And creation groans - don’t you get that sense when you see pictures of the oil polluted beaches of France, or the yellowish haze that hangs over most metropolitan areas, or the huge storms that devastate whole areas.
Pain! Longing for the day yet to come when Jesus will return to set all aright, to purge creation of evil and tears - to make all things new.

That’s the reality of living today.
Sometimes it almost seems as if the seasons of groaning outnumber the seasons of smiling.
Ever get that feeling?
And then what?
How do we pray then?
Can we?

In the times of uncertainty
the times of confusion
the times of lethargy
the times of fear and terror
the times of spiritual disarray
the defeated times
How can we, how do we pray?

We may as well face this question right up front - which is why it’s number two in our multi-part series.
Right from the get-go we need to hear words of direction and comfort from God’s Word; words that Dr. John Murray of Westminster Seminary once said are too often overlooked in our Reformed circles.

They are the words from verse 26-27 of Romans 8:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself interceded for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Our scope is limited, our vision is clouded, our strength is faint.... and the Great Spirit of Jesus is there able to reach to the farthest corners of heaven and earth, to see beyond all time and space, with Almighty Divine Creative strength.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

It’s the basic truth that other passages in the Bible also build on:

"build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit." Jude 20

Ephesians 6:18 "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."

You may have heard the saying:
A joy shared is double joy. A burden shared is half a burden.
It speaks of the power of true, deep companionship.

The good news message of the Bible is that every single girl and boy, woman or man who surrenders their life to Jesus Christ has a true, powerful, always near companion. It’s the promise of v.26-27:
We have the Spirit of Jesus to help us in our weakness.
 

"Surely, I am with you always" said Jesus in Mt 28.20.
"I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." John 14.18

That sense which we sometimes experience of almost being able to reach out and touch the Lord. That sense that you’re not in your dark bedroom alone. That sense, sometimes, of very concrete guidance in the midst of confusion. That sense of a power source giving you courage when otherwise you’ve been feeling drained and hopeless.
That’s the Holy Spirit at work.
Helping us in our weakness.

Sometimes we have a real sense of it. Sometimes not.
That’s how it is with firstfruits – we have the early pretaste, but not the full meal.
But whether we sense it or not - it IS there.
It IS real.
He NEVER leaves us or forgets about us.

There with us..... also in prayer.
Prayer - when we reach out to heaven.
The reaching happens through Jesus and the firm, certain saving work He accomplished for us on the cross. That is a rock solid foundation that no one can ever move or take away.
Prayer happens, however, from a most uncertain world situation, a world that is still filled with aches and pains, a world still rocked by death, a world still stained by sin, a world stuck between the first and second coming of Christ, between the first unveiling of His kingdom power and the final revealing of that power in all its splendour with the full victory over sin and death.

And in that groan-filled situation we don’t always know what to do or say or feel. We’re stuck.
We don’t know how to handle this whole business of prayer.

Good news this morning is - we DON’T have to do it alone.
The Spirit helps us in our praying.
Have you ever had it that you were in a situation where you had to pray and weren’t quite sure what to do with it, but as you started words came to you? And perhaps afterwards someone said, "How did you know? That was exactly what was needed!" You can thank the Holy Spirit for giving you the words.

I want to encourage you to look for such leading when you pray – the thought put into your mind, sentences that almost seem to form themselves as you pray. Then take the risk and pray those out loud – in time you will come to learn when it is just your mind, and when in fact it is the Holy Spirit giving direct guidance ---- you’ll learn to hear His holy voice, and sense His inner prompting.

He also helps us in our praying by sending people our way, placing them in our lives and path so that they can pray for us. One of the saddest, most impoverishing things that can happen in a believer’s life is if he or she never experiences praying together with someone else or having someone pray for them.
If you let yourself get frozen into that kind of a situation, you’ll be cutting off one of the great ways in which the Spirit works within us, namely through other people.
Oh yes, the first few times you do it things may feel a bit awkward. You may feel like you’ve gone out on a limb. Will they tell others? What will they think of me? What will they say? Do I have to? Will it really make a difference, anyway?
Brief answer - we’ll look at this whole topic more fully in coming weeks - is "Yes, it does make a difference." That’s why I’m so glad we have prayer teams here at Calvin.
No - they won’t bite or gossip.
Yes - the Holy Spirit works through them.
Please - use them.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

And one more thing that verse 26 tells us.
Not only does the Spirit help us. He actually gets into our mixed-up, dirty, pain-filled, groaning situations. Once there he groans with us and He prays for us.
Ch.8 talks about people groaning and creation groaning. It also talks about the Spirit groaning. Can you hear that, understand that, believe that?
The Holy Spirit of God...... groaning?

The Holy Spirit identifies with our groans, with the pains of the world and the church, and shares in the longing for the final freedom of both. We and He groan together. [J.Stott Romans p.245]

And the Father always hears those prayers, understands those prayers, answers those prayers. Maybe we’re not sure what to say or how to say it. Maybe we just plain can’t say it. The Holy Spirit can. Which is why someone was able to write this poem:

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, unuttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye, when none but God is near.

[James Montgomery #434 in psalter hymnal 1957 ed.]

And then one more thing - something we didn’t read, but which I want to reference. Jump ahead with me to verse 34. These words about the One who is the foundation of all our praying:

"Christ Jesus.... is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."
The One who has been in our space, experienced the sorts of things - joys, disappointments, uncertainties – that we experience, Jesus is offering perfect intercession for us to the Father.

Even if no one else knows........ or cares;
Even if we can’t get a handle on it;
The Spirit and the Son are interceding. We are being prayed for by the most perfect prayer team ever imaginable!!

Both offering divine prayers and intercessions to the throne of the Father.
Both doing it on our behalf.
From below and from above. And we’re in the middle.
What a marvelous place to be!!

The place of prayer:

- we, in our weakness, unsure of what or how to pray
- the Spirit, dwelling in the deepest recesses of our being, fully aware of our situation and our inner condition, praying for us and through us
- Jesus the Son, having been where we are, sitting beside the Father
- the Father, who knows our hearts, and who also in Trinitarian Oneness, knows the mind of the Holy Spirit, hearing all, and answering in Holy perfection.