Sunday, July 26, 2026
Romans 8:26-27
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.
Way back on Monday, we read Psalm 139, and it is clear here that Paul did, too.
One of the most important experiences in my life was during my Clinical Pastoral Education when I got to sit in circles with people recovering from addiction. Over an over again, I literally heard people say, “I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for Jesus.”
Every time I heard those words, my curiosity spiked and I wondered what the subjective difference was between my life of faith and theirs. Keep in mind, I used the word “subjective.” You are objectively saved by grace through faith and it does not matter how you feel about it. Our subjective experience of grace just happens to be one of the amazing gifts God lavishes upon us.
What all of these people had in common was they were honest with their brokenness. They stared down their sin for what it was, no holds barred. It is against this “fearless moral inventory” that the gospel becomes so, so good.
The Apostle Paul was a stone cold killer. We shouldn’t forget that he was an objectively bad person who hunted down and persecuted Christians. That was until Jesus ended that life on the road to Damascus.
Paul knows what it is like to have been forgiven, redeemed, and set free. If you read Paul throughout the New Testament, then you will find a person who is very aware of their sin—but also God’s grace.
It is in this process of processing God’s grace relative to our sin that Paul tells the Roman church that there is not part of them that God wants to leave behind. That God wants to redeem every last bit-even the parts we don’t have words to name. When we can’t bring ourselves to mention those things, God’s Spirit does it for us.
So, friends, not just some of you is redeemed by grace. All of you is. And that is good news.
– Pr. Jason
God, thank you for your Holy Spirit which goes to the deeper part of me to bring new life and restoration. Amen.
