Groans

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 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 intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Romans 8:25-27 NIV

The KJV Bible uses the word ‘groanings’ in this passage, and in some ways this carries the feelings in a little better manner. It’s the Spirit that intercedes for us in this way, but it doesn’t take much imagination to show that we also find ourselves praying in wordless groans! We don’t know why, but we feel that something isn’t right in our lives, or family, or church, or leadership, so we adopt a groaning for our petitions because we can’t put it into words.

I’m sure you will get the feeling at times that something isn’t quite right, but you can’t put your finger on it exactly. At work, school, or in the house that old red light comes on and for the life of us, we don’t understand why. Then a few days, or weeks, or perhaps even years, the truth emerges and your 6th sense was shown to be right. The question is, did we act on that ‘feeling’? Or did we just file it away under ‘it will pass’?

It would serve us well to take note of the warning light, and if possible check it out, or even act on it when we feel strongly enough that the feeling will grow bigger until it takes over. We have the God given senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste, but we are also granted some foreknowledge of something wrong. It is called discernment, and is often wrongly and sadly abused to malign and castigate fellow believers who think or act differently from us.