Title: God’s Life-Giving Prayer
Reference: Romans 8:26-27
Speaker: Paul Brandes, PaulB@cckc.church

“During that long year, as autumn brought darkening days and frost settled in, I was a priest who couldn’t pray. I didn’t know how to approach God anymore. There were too many things to say, too many questions without answers. My depth of pain overshadowed my ability with words. And, more painfully, I couldn’t pray because I wasn’t sure how to trust God. … Adrift in the current of my own doubt and grief, I was flailing.”
- Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night; For those who Work or Watch or Weep

> We never groan alone.

> When all you can do is groan, the Spirit groans with you.

> When all you can do is groan, the Spirit groans for you.

> When all you can do is groan, the Spirit makes our groans enough.

> When all you can do is groan, groan in God’s direction.

> When all you can do is groan, allow God to speak on your behalf.

“The chief means for attaining wisdom are the Holy Scriptures and prayer. The one is the fountain of living water, the other the bucket with which we are to draw.”
- John Newton

“It is better to come to God with sharp words than to remain distant from him, never voicing our doubts and disappointments. Better to rage at the Creator than to smolder in polite devotion. God did not smite the psalmist. Through the Psalms, he dares us to speak to him bluntly.”
- Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night; For those who Work or Watch or Weep

> When all you can do is groan, sit with God rather than trying to get from God.

> We never groan alone.