Groans and Moans

WOOHOO - what did we do without all of our modern gadgets - How did we manage??

Its so hard to imagine our world fitting into the world of the late 18th and early 19th centuries - without all of our communication aids - How did those people manage? - it must have been an extraordinary world, no mobile phones, iPods, iPhones,and computers - not even a Fax machine - amazing.

Our incredible God speaks to us so directly - and He has been doing that since creation - no need for any sort of technology - His voice can be strong, caring, sensitive, disciplinary or even a gentle whisper - all we have to do is to listen.

It is so interesting and as pointed out by the none other than Charles Spurgeon himself that in Matthew 11:25 the verse starts by saying "And Jesus answered" BUT it doesn't say who He was answering??

Jesus had such a close Communion with His Father God that he answered Him - and what did He answer "I thank you O Father" .

No one else heard anything - suddenly Jesus says "I thank you O Father" which just goes to show that He had constant and close fellowship and Communion with God His heavenly Father.

Jesus was born as a helpless baby - human - just like us - bone and flesh and blood - and yet here He is being so close to God that He answers Him as if He were having a face-to-face D&M.

So this simple statement in Matthew can teach us something - what?

We can have the same close relationship with our heavenly Father as we can have with other people.

Sometimes when God speaks it will be to convict us of something not right in our lives - we may need to confess whatever it is that God's Holy Spirit have convicted us of and in so doing to re-open the communication pathway.

God is so willing to speak to us - and we need to be willing to speak to Him.

Once we have accepted Jesus as Lord - confessed our past to Him and asked Him to rule our lives then by prayer we have an instant communication line to the Father - it is truly amazing!

Romans 8: 26-27 says "That in our weakness, the Spirit of God helps us because we don't know how to pray as we ought, and so the Spirit intercedes for us with wordless groanings."

The passage goes on "God the father - the one who searched our hearts - knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit prays for us according to God's will."

That's a pretty amazing verse - God, through the Holy Spirit knows what we need before we ask - and even when we don't know how or what to pray for - The Holy Spirit knows our hearts and motives and intercedes for us to God.

So in times when we are in stress - life seems to be getting the better of us - our little boat is swamped with mountainous waves and we are all bailing for our lives - God through His Holy Spirit can interpret even our groans and is there for us.

Sometimes we can't put words to how we are feeling - that's happened heaps of times in my life!! - yet God in His mercy and grace can interpret our minds, thoughts, motives and heart aches.

Although, before we can have any communication with our Creator God we must put things right with Him and with anyone else that we have hurt or we feel have hurt us.

Unforgiveness and taking and giving offence will alienate us from Him - and there will be no communication at all, zilch, zero, none!

We need to put things right - ask forgiveness and then keep those lines open to the only one that has the answer to everything.

It just makes me amazed that our Heavenly Father - the great God of Creation, Jesus the son and God the Holy Spirit loves me so much that He is yearning to hear my prayers.

Each time my heart aches, He knows - When I grieve, He knows - and more than that He cares. He cares for me and He cares for you - He hears our groans and moans - our praises and our laughter.

He knows our hearts desires and our motives and our secret sins.

He knows that there are going to be many bad things that happen to us in life. There is going to be much suffering. There are going to be hard times but through it all He hears our "Groanings."

He knows and understands and because of that I personally have a deeper understanding of what prayer is all about.

Prayer is more than a shopping list of wishes!!

Prayer is the open communication between a puny little guy and the King of the Universe - extraordinary!

So when we are deep in the 'puzzle' of life - the ups and downs - the despair - the worry - the deep concern - the joy - the happiness - Be assured that our God does care and does listen to prayers even if we no idea what we are praying for.