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Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  Romans 8:26

It is not a sin to be weak.  Weakness is a human condition.  Frailty plagues the most righteous man or woman, especially when in the midst of suffering.  Quickly, every one of us loses our spiritual perspective.  Our prayers reflect this vacuum.

Job was righteous.  God said so.  Yet he couldn’t understand why he was suffering and his prayers proved his confusion.  His friends thought they knew the mind of God and probably prayed for him, but wrongly.

The disciples, as much as they loved Jesus, proved to be weak prayer partners.  In the garden, when Jesus needed them most, they feel asleep during Jesus’ hours of anguish.

Elijah, a prophet of courageous proportions, succumbed to a weakened state after a great spiritual victory.  Exhausted and emotionally drained, he prayed that the Lord would take his life.  The flesh and the spirit are so integrally connected.  When the body fails, the spirit is confused.

If I don’t know how to pray for myself, how can I be sure anyone else will be able to pray for me correctly?  The answer is ‘who it is’ that is my ‘best friend’ in intercession.  The Holy Spirit.  He is aware and fully engaged with my story.  He knows my limited ability to understand God’s sovereign plan for my life.  When I cry out to God and I am wordless, much like a baby in distress, He hears my weeping and interprets it to the Father.  He perceives my faltering words, my frustrating silences and interprets those too.  He tells my story better than I can and He tells it with omniscience.  He prays about everything with perfect perspective.

So many days, I pray…. “Oh holy Spirit, rise up in me and teach me how to pray.  Form my words.  Pray when my language fails.”  Could the friendship of God be more perfectly proven than in this?

I rest in Your groanings, and even Your tears, for the places in my life which have left me speechless and wanting. Thank you for being such a friend. Amen

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  Romans 8:22

One of the most poignant conversations happened recently, it was with my daughter, Jaime, and it centered around the implications of the Fall and how creation groans.

Typically, when we think of the effects of the Fall, we think of big things.  Pain of childbirth, plagues, destructive weather, disease, rape, murder, etc.  What struck us in our sharing was that there is a more subtle list.  I’ll start it below:

• As an infant, you were lying in your bassinette.  It was 2:00 a.m. and you woke up hungry.  You started to cry.  Your tired mother was exasperated. “No, you can’t need to eat again!”   What is that?   The Fall.
• In Kindergarten, there is whispering among a group of girls about the outfit you’re wearing.  There is shame and uncertainty.  What is that?   The Fall.
• You’re doing your homework.  Your parents are in the middle of something, but you need their help for one of your math problems.  They are irked at the interruption.  “Good grief!  Can’t you figure it out yourself?”  What is that?   The Fall. 
• Your arms, legs, and face sting from bad sunburn.  What is that?   The Fall.
• You feel uneasy and spend time driving around the block to find a parking space that is better lit with streetlamps.  What is that?   The Fall.
• You wake up and wish you felt like you did yesterday.  The energy is gone and you know you’ll have to push to get through your day.  What is that?   The Fall.

Why make a list like this?  I can tell you that it’s been very meaningful.  We know that God will wipe away all tears, that He will eradicate all disease, and that we will dwell in safety.  But how about the redemption of little things!  There will be no more exasperated loved ones who tire of our needs.  There will be no more inflicted shame by friends and acquaintances.  There will be no more days of feeling the pressure of physical limits.

And how about the biggest pain we feel?  The longing to be with God.  That ache will be satisfied when our separation comes to an end.  We will be permanently home.  Safe.  Loved.  Glorified.  Full of joy.  Looking into the face of the One we have loved, but not yet seen.

I’ve underestimated what you will restore and make new.  Let me imagine with the wonder of a child.  Amen

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  Romans 8:18

I was so moved this morning by a C.S. Lewis quote from his book, Weight of Glory.  He defines glory as ‘a longing for something that can hardly be expressed.’ 

Suffering has the power to render a person speechless.  Glory has the same power.  We want something deep in our souls but we know it’s not available to us yet. We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already; you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings, if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.

That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if ‘the west wind could really sweep into a human soul’; but we know it can’t. They tell us that ‘beauty born of murmuring sound will pass into a human face’; but we know it probably won’t. At least, not yet. God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendor of the sun.

At present we are on the outside of the world we belong to; we’re on the dark side of the door. The leaves of the Old and New Testaments are rustling with the rumors that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”

C.S. Lewis WEIGHT OF GLORY

For any of you who are crushed beneath the weight of pain and words are not adequate to paint the anguish you experience, the same wordlessness will visit you again one day – but it will be an inadequacy to speak of glory, not suffering.  That is our hope and sustaining grace. I am grateful to be able to testify that, in the past year, God has taken me to stunningly beautiful places in the Spirit. At first, there was frustration that words failed me. Now, I know, accept, and celebrate it.

I am often like a fussy child not knowing what I want but hating how I feel.  You know what I want, You and Your kingdom and the restoration of paradise. Fill my heart with the hope of glory.  Amen

…and if (we) are children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.  Romans 8:16

The theology of suffering is an expansive topic but in today’s scripture, it’s crystalized into something pretty simple.

Jesus suffered.

He told me that if I followed Him, I would suffer.

And if I suffer with Him, I will one day be glorified with Him.

If I am only someone’s friend in fair weather, my love for them has not yet been tested. Let hard times come and my commitment to them will cost me my own comfort. To enter their pain, I will sacrifice things like time, money, and perhaps my need to have my theology of suffering tied up in neat little boxes. Questions about faith in God’s goodness and faithfulness will arise if I remain intimate with my friend.

There is nothing abstract about that. Suffering is part of sonship. It is not proof that I have been abandoned, but often proof that I belong to Him. We want inheritance without pain, glory without fellowship in His wounds, resurrection without a cross. But if I am someone’s friend only in fair weather, my love has not yet been tested. Let hardship come, and my devotion will begin to cost me comfort, certainty, convenience, and maybe even my theology of suffering tied up in neat little boxes.

The same is true with Jesus. My willingness to remain with Him in adversity authenticates my discipleship. If I am faithful only when life is manageable, then my love has not yet been proven. If I keep the cross at the center only as long as it stays symbolic and does not become costly, then I have not understood what it means to follow Him. Jesus told me to take up my cross, not admire His from a distance. His faithfulness to the Father while suffering revealed His Sonship. My faithfulness to Jesus in suffering reveals mine.

The heart of my Savior was laid bare on the cross. My heart is laid bare when affliction strips me. Suffering reveals what comfort can keep hidden. When everything was taken from Jesus, His love still prevailed. When my comforts are removed, when I am pressed, disappointed, undone, my love for Him is exposed too. That is sobering. I’m asking Jesus to keep me near His cross when I am tempted to harden, and give me grace to stay faithful when obedience is costly.

Oh, but I depend on Your grace to love You as You have loved me.  Amen

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.  Romans 8:12

The giving of a gift can communicate different things. It might say, ‘I love you.’ Oh, but it can just as easily convey, “Now, you owe me!’ It comes with expectations for something you should give in return. I’m sure you’ve received both kinds. I have.

It’s tricky, isn’t it? I’ve had people tell me that they receive far more gifts with strings attached than they do gifts that are freely given. Feeling indebted to people we can’t fully trust is a heavy burden. How some people expect to be repaid can be right out expensive. Perhaps you’ve stayed in a toxic relationship just because of guilt!

Live this way long enough and distrust rules our heart. Because if I’ve been accustomed to getting gifts with strings attached, I won’t be able to accept free gifts without thinking I surely owe something.

Can being a debtor be a good thing?  Yes, as long as it’s with Jesus. He is my Savior, He gives without strings, and then invites me to give back my life, not out of guilt but out of gratitude. What cures sterile Christian service that feels obligatory? What cures resentment over feeling over tired and over committed? Falling in love with the Giver. He is incapable of manipulating and using me to get His needs met. Once I understand that, I am free to listen closely and clear a good part of my calendar!

I am safe to love You with my life, Jesus. Amen

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6

This verse is clearly not vague. It asks what direction our thoughts naturally lean, what atmosphere our soul is breathing, and where we feel most at home. These questions are meant to help us slow down, come quietly before God, and let His Spirit search us with honesty and tenderness.

Reflective Study Questions

1. Where are you experiencing the difference between life in the Spirit and the irresistible pull of the flesh?
2. What once felt natural to you but now feels foreign because Jesus simply changed your appetites?
3. When you sin, do you move quickly toward God, or away, and what does that pattern reveal?

Questions For Deeper Formation

1. In what ways might you be mistaking distraction, self-indulgence, or spiritual fatigue for something harmless, when in fact it may be weakening your responsiveness to God?
2. What is the difference between stumbling into sin and becoming inwardly at home in it?
3. Is there any area where I have grown too comfortable with a divided heart—externally faithful, yet inwardly drifting?

Questions for Leaders and Shepherds

1. How can I help women discern the difference between a tender conscience that struggles and a soul that is growing increasingly at ease with the flesh?
2. In my leadership, how do I speak about sin in a way that is sobering without becoming harsh, and gracious without becoming vague?
3. What signs have I seen in women who are spiritually wandering but not spiritually dead, and how can I shepherd them with both truth and hope?

Closing prayer

Holy Spirit, show me where I’m drifting and turn my face again toward You. Amen

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  Romans 8:6

To set my mind on the flesh is to be habitually consumed with things that offend God.  How can I focus all my attention, as a consistent way of life, on the very things enemies of God think about?  Doesn’t that make me God’s enemy?  I believe Paul is saying yes. ‘She who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.’  I Timothy 5:6  She is the living dead. A life set on the flesh is a life moving toward death. The body breathes, but the soul is estranged.

The unbeliever lives for himself.  He is consumed with getting his needs met on his own terms.  He has no thought of God except for the occasional ache in his soul that something is wrong.

The believer has been born again into a completely new reality.  God has become his father.  What once felt natural now feels foreign. What once charmed now disappoints. The mind and heart have been turned in a new direction. There is a new hunger, a new grief over sin, a new peace in knowing that all is finally well between his soul and God. He is not perfect, but he is no longer at home in sin.

If I wound my earthly father, I do not stop thinking about him. If the relationship matters, the rupture matters. In the same way, a true child of God cannot live grieving the heart of the Father without feeling the tear of it somewhere deep inside. He may wander. He may dull himself for a season. But if the Spirit lives in him, he will not be able to sin with settled peace. Something in him will ache for home.

Do not let me grow comfortable in anything that grieves Your heart. Amen

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  Romans 8:2

Why do we speak to ourselves this way? If our self-talk became audible, it would shock the people around us. They would hear us call ourselves idiots, hopeless losers, liars, thieves, immoral men and women, disappointments to those who love us, people with no real future. They would hear us say our sins are beyond forgiveness. This kind of inward speech is a slow death to joy. It keeps our faces turned downward. We cannot lift our heads enough to look up.

This self-hatred did not begin with us. Satan accused us first before our Father in heaven. But Jesus silenced him, declaring that we are forgiven and made righteous in Him. Failing there, the accuser came to us with the same charges, and too often we did not answer him with the same truth. His labels clung to us, and our joy drained away.

But there is a cure for regret. There is a cure for crippling guilt. There is a cure for self-loathing. It is this: my sins no longer belong to me. They were laid on Jesus two thousand years ago. Is He bowed down under their weight today? Heaven forbid. He bore them fully, paid for them dearly, and declared the work finished. He is in heaven now, not crushed, but reigning—and rejoicing that I am free. Why, then, should I live bowed down as though the cross accomplished nothing? The heaviness is real, but its authority is a lie.

For every one today who suffers for nothing, remind them through Your Spirit that we are forgiven. We are free. We are loved. And we are dressed in Your perfection. Amen

Romans 8:1 is not a narrow doorway into freedom; it is an open gateway. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” But, we don’t walk into freedom as easily as we quote the verse. We carry old accusations and well-worn habits of self-sentencing.

Romans 8, as a chapter, is so incredibly rich that I want to linger on each verse for several days.  If you missed the last two devotionals on condemnation, you can find them here. 

Now on day three, these questions are meant to help us linger here a day long—not merely to admire the doctrine of no condemnation, but to ask whether it has truly reached the hidden places of our soul where accusation still speaks.  Good questions that make us dig deep end up changing us.  Know that I am reflecting on these along with you today.

Reflective Study Questions

1. In your lived experience, what is the practical difference between conviction and condemnation? Where have you seen the enemy counterfeit one with the other?
2. Where are you still relating to God as though your standing before Him fluctuates with your recent performance?
3. In what ways have you unconsciously built a spirituality that still includes self-punishment?
4. Where do you most often “send yourself back to death row” after Christ has already opened the cell?
5. Which is harder for you to believe at the deepest level: that Christ has fully canceled your guilt, or that He still delights in you after your failure?

Questions for Deeper Formation

1. What accusation against you has lasted so long that it now sounds like your own inner voice?
2. What part of your story still feels “less redeemable” than the rest, and what does that reveal about your actual theology of grace?
3. Where are you asking Christ to forgive you again for what He has already fully justified?

Questions for Leaders and Shepherds

1. How can you tell when the women you lead are living under conviction that leads to repentance, versus condemnation that leads to hiding?
2. In your ministry language, do you make it easier or harder for wounded women to believe that grace is stronger than their failure?
3. Where might your own unresolved shame be shaping the tone of your counsel, teaching, or expectations of others?

Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,  David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength after being weak, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.  Hebrews 11:32-3

It’s easy to assess a weak person as forever weak. They are often pigeonholed from their youth. When considering whom to choose for a position where strength is critical, the weak are usually not considered.   I must remember that the weak are made strong by God.  The degree of their weakness is immaterial.  If they trust God, rise up to obey His mandate, then watch out!

The children of Israel were always outnumbered and yet, with God, their weaknesses were paired with God’s unparalleled strength. Gideon defeated the Midianites with fragile pitchers, pieces of earthen pottery.  Samson slayed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.  Historically, ill equipped saints were given beyond the natural to enable them to overcome incredible odds in the supernatural. Think of the widow and her son who were on the edge of starvation.  They had a handful of flour and a little oil left to make their last meal. God’s hand touched their meager amount of supplies and there what was little became plentiful.

God’s tactical strategies do not include the assessment of a person’s strengths.  He takes a person who loves Him, trusts Him, and though he may be weak and without resources, God completes what is lacking to make them a supernatural kingdom force.

What battle are you fighting today?  I’m in one myself. The advantage, in the natural realm, is not mine.  I can see that.  It may not be yours either.  Put the equation on paper and a disastrous outcome is sure.  If you live with someone who prizes intellect, a scientific mind who thrives on logic and solid evidence, predictions of gloom will fill your home.  Faith must be fought for.  And fight, we must.  The battle can be against the arguments of faithless children of God. This should not be but it is.

God is for you.  Not against you.  Stand up and expect a miracle.  Put it all on the line.  Offer Him what you have even if it’s far from enough.  I love J.D. Greer’s quote.  Our strength is more of a liability than an asset.  When God wants to use us, He often begins by weakening us.

The most important thing I have in my hands is helpless dependence on You.  Amen