“That wasn’t an ‘I’m tired’ sigh,” Peggy remarked as we drove down the interstate together, “What’s on your mind?” After 40 years of marriage, we know each other’s audibles, inaudibles, and everything in between. So I told her. “I’ve been thinking I’m much closer to the time I’ll see my father again than to the age I was when I lost him. [My father died close to 60 years ago, when I was a boy.] I wonder what it will be like. They say there is an intense feeling of love in heaven, so maybe all my human cares and questions will be gone. Then I think about having lived in my father’s shadow. Have I limited myself by my own thoughts? What is my calling now? And can I step into a new calling without self-limiting beliefs?” All this found expression in one big, wordless sigh.
The Bible articulates something we already sense inside, that “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now”1 and that “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”2 The Greek word translated as “groan” here can also be translated, “sigh.” We live in a world marked with futility, injustice, persecution, and pain, so we sigh at what is, while longing for what awaits us. But here’s the thing: we don’t groan alone. Paul writes, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings [sighs] too deep for words.”3 The Holy Spirit in us intercedes for us; He prays on our behalf for needs we don’t even know we have. Moreover, it is He who takes the initiative to do so. Why would we ever doubt God’s love for us?
King David once relatably lamented in song, “my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing.”4 Yet God understands our troubles in this broken world even more than we do, and He will not leave us hopelessly mired in them. Instead, He promises a new life of liberty and joy: “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”5
In the meantime, the Spirit sighs with us as He intercedes for us. Rejoice in this. Rest in this. We are not alone.
Father, we are overwhelmed at times by the challenges we know and the obstacles we sense but cannot articulate. Thank You for sending Your Spirit to intercede on our behalf with groans and sighs too deep for words. Lead us. We need You. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Romans 8:22 ESV
2 Romans 8:23 ESV
3 Romans 8:26 ESV
4 Psalm 31:10 ESV
5 Isaiah 51:11 ESV
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Paul Nordman—Author 