How many of you would describe yourself as "suffering"?
To be honest, everyone is suffering. We could be living in perfection with God, but because of sin we are stuck in this broken world for the time being where there is pain, loss, heartache, and suffering. Now sure, some people are suffering WAY MORE than other people, but at the end of the day we each have our own struggles in life. Some of you reading this are struggling with constant self-doubt or anxiety. Some of you are struggling with traumatic experiences, abuse, or difficult family members. Some of you struggle with feeling like you just don't belong. Some of you are struggling with a general sense of hopelessness, worthlessness, or depression. Some of you probably just feel empty inside most of the time, unloved, unwanted, or unappreciated. Each of these things is a form of suffering in our lives.
The apostle Paul, the guy we talk about a lot who followed Jesus and wrote a lot of the New Testament in the Bible, knew A LOT about suffering - physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. This guy was beaten, stoned (and not the drug kind), left for dead, flogged, imprisoned, shipwrecked, bitten by venomous snakes, falsely accused, slandered, rejected, hated, and he struggled daily with a broken heart for the lost people of the world who needed Jesus in their lives. He knew what it meant to truly suffer. Now listen to what he has to say to some fellow Christians:
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 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 8:18-27
So Paul considers our present sufferings - everything we are going through right now and everything we will ever go through - as not even worth comparing with the glory that is to come for us. Basically, he is saying that what God is going to do in the future (and the life that we are going to have in Heaven) is going to be SO GOOD and awesome that there is just no comparison to be made with what we're going through right now. It would be like trying to compare a marble to the actual sun. It would be like comparing a 1st grader's drawing of the earth with the actual earth. It would be like comparing my arms to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's arms. There is no comparison.
And Paul is assuring you (yes, YOU) that no matter what you are going through right now, whether it be emptiness, anxiety, depression, self-doubt, trauma, or abuse, God is going to do something infinitely greater in your future. Paul is assuring you that there is hope of something better. And as we wait for that something better, he also reminds us that we can connect with God, and talk to Him, now. In the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our struggle, God is right there with us and we can connect with Him through prayer.
On this idea of intercession, I want you to picture in your mind that you are in an old western movie and you are stuck in a duel against the best sharpshooter in the west. The road is dusty, the doors to the saloon are swinging, one of those bush things blows across the road between you and this cowboy. Now, not only is this guy the best sharpshooter in the west, but you realize that the gun in your holster is just a water pistol. Even worse, its empty. You have an empty water pistol against his fully loaded Colt .45. Your knees are shaking, your hands are sweaty, and you have no idea what you are doing. The bell is about to ding, the duel about to start, and you are about to be dead. Then suddenly, someone jumps out between you and the cowboy, hands raised in that universal sign for "Stand down". This person talks to the cowboy and manages to get you out of the duel (and out of certain death). This person got between you and the cowboy and worked something out. THAT is what it means to intercede for someone. And that is what it means for the Holy Spirit to be interceding for us.
In our relationship with God, and in most of our prayer times, we are that lost, shaky, sweaty duelist with an empty water pistol - we have no clue what we should be praying about or saying to God. The Holy Spirit steps in-between us and God and shares with God what is really on our hearts, what our real needs are, and how we really feel. He is the go-between.
Do you want to know the real reason why we see so much suffering in the world and in our lives? It is because as humans, we are designed with a God-shaped hole in our hearts. And if you have ever seen that shape game that babies play with (you know, the one with the circle, the square, and the triangle), only God can fill that God-shaped hole. I have this hole in my heart, my wife has it in her heart, and each of you has it in your heart. And there are times in my life (probably more than I would like to admit) when I try to fill that hole with stuff other than God - videogames, sleep, food, music, stories, Netflix, memes, and even cleaning. This is like when that baby tries to put the triangle in the circle space. It just doesn't fit or fill the space. I only feel filled when I turn back to God and spend time with Him in prayer. He reminds me of who I am, and how much He loves me, and as Paul wrote, He reminds me of the glory that awaits me in the future. He fills me with hope. He fills the hole in my heart.
And for some of you, I know that praying can be awkward, and you don't always know what to say or what to pray about, but the reminder here is that we have the Holy Spirit as our go-between. When we don't know what to say, He says it for us. When we feel awkward, God fills the silence for us, and He fills that God-shaped hole in our lives.
So if you are out there right and you are suffering, turn to God. Cry out to Him and share your hurt, your suffering, with Him. Let Him remind you of who you are to Him (His child) and how much He loves you. Let Him fill you with hope as He points to the future and whispers in your ear "One day you won't feel like this anymore. One day I will wipe away all the tears and suffering." In the meantime, let us spend our time in prayer and eagerly await the glory He has in store for us.
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