"Creation Groans - We Groan - The Holy Spirit Groans" - Why Waiting Is Sometimes Painful

Creation Groans – We Groan – The Holy Spirit Groans 

“Why Waiting Is Sometimes Painful”

 

By Mary Lindow

 

WELCOME TO THIS PODCAST EPISODE! 

As I promised, I had told you I was going to share a few podcasts and share a few wonderful stories and experiences that I have had where the Lord has divinely protected, orchestrated and guided my life and my husband Steve’s life. 

It’s been a very interesting and intriguing journey, and at times very perilous and not at all fun when it comes to the persecution side of things. 

 

For some reason, there are individuals who preach a gospel that say to the masses that follow them, “Everything is going to be rosy! Everything is going to be fully prosperous financially, and you’re going to be perfectly healthy every day of your life. Every single day of your life is one big, happy party!”

Well, for sure, this is not biblical foundational truth when you hear these things. 

 

If you examine the scriptures, you will see that there was a tremendous amount of persecution and much sorrow for strong believers, even some having to be driven into living into caves due to persecution! The apostle Paul speaks about learning how to abase and to abound, meaning, he learned how to function and adjust whether he had plenty or whether he had little. But, he continued to serve Christ and continued no matter how difficult the persecution became, to get back up, even after he was stoned one time and they left him for dead. He got back up and marched back into the city, met up with some dear friends, went to the next city and preached again! 

(Acts 14:19-21)

 

This Podcast Is Going To Discuss The Current Groaning Of Creation, 

Our Own Groaning And The Longing For God To Finally Complete 

The Fullness Of Things So That Christ Can Return, And Of Course 

The Holy Spirit Makes Groaning And Utterances Too Deep 

For Our Own Words, Travailing Through Us As We Pray.

 

Romans 8:26-27 tells us this! 

It says:

26 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.  

27 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.

 

ALL THREE OF THESE TYPES OF GROANING ARE TAKING PLACE RIGHT NOW.  It’s no secret if you know Steve and I that we have gone through a very difficult season starting a few months before the COVID-19 virus swept our world. With that taking place, we had the loss of our counseling Offices, our dear friend and team counselor/colleague and key supervisor, who carried the doctoral licensure for our Counseling Center died from Covid19. 

Adding to the difficulty, ministry invitations to teach and speak also came to a screeching standstill because people couldn’t travel and churches were suffering financially or were uncomfortable holding services.

 

WHAT IS ONE TO DO WHEN IT FEELS LIKE YOU’RE EXPERIENCING THE LIFE OF JOB OR JOSEPH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT? Certainly it’s not wise to pretend that everything is “perky and wonderful” and then lie to people when they too were suffering. 

No! We groaned and we wept and we encouraged and we prayed and prayed!  And then prayed some more with others who were suffering and going through the groanings of trauma and loss.

For the most part (and I’m truthfully speaking), I’m telling the partial story because the long version of the personal costs and deeper details would take entirely too long to share. I’m sharing openly and a bit vulnerably for a reason though! 

 

We personally had parents locked down in nursing homes over a thousand miles away that we could not get to and one of them died after being abused in that nursing home. Oh yes, we had police and investigators and detectives and even the state of Illinois health board investigating, but by the time they caught up with the perpetrators and those that had dropped my precious 90+ year-old mother-in-law on the front-side of her head, onto a hard wooden bedside table, and then onto the floor where they had stopped using fall mats (because no one was permitted to come into the nursing home to check during lockdowns), her bones were fractured as well as previously from another fall we didn’t know about, until the x-ray team was sent in, garbed up, to run a scan on her. She was also suffering from dementia so it was frantic and frightening for her. 

 

Deep Anguish. Deep Groaning!  Th