Groaning

Groan/Groaning…To groan, sigh, or make a deep inward sound expressing distress, pressure, or longing.

Sometimes we groan on the inside, and sometimes we groan on the outside. The older our earthly tents/bodies get, the more they groan under the weight of time. We groan physically because we are running down (energy and time). Yes, physical groaning occurs as we age, and there is also a spiritual groaning that takes place. The Apostle Paul refers to both in his letter to the Gentile Church at Corinth.

2 Corinthians 5:1-5 (NASB)

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2  For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,3  inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.4  For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.5  Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

When we came to faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, God gave us the Holy Spirit to help us in our time of physical and spiritual groaning. The Spirit is our Comforter, and the Spirit is also our guarantee. The presence of the Holy Spirit guarantees all believers that God will give us an eternal body (through the resurrection) and eternal life in His divine presence. Both are guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. And this truth should comfort us in times of groaning.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (NLT)

It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us,22  and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.

Yes, the world seems crazy right now. Yes, the spirit war seems to be getting worse and worse. Yes, all creation (heaven and earth) seems to be groaning right now. But take comfort in the groaning. God told us in advance that one day this groaning would lead to shouts of joy and deliverance as we receive our full rights as the adopted children of God.

Romans 8:22-23 (NLT)

For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.23  And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

Lead Pastor

Terry Cooper