NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

February 19

Scripture focus: Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8:26-28 MSG

The Greek word for “helping” is a mouthful – sunantilambanao – and it paints a picture of the Holy Spirit standing with us, beside us, protectively leading us to freedom from our vulnerability to sin and shame.

Our family loves football. More accurately, the rest of my family loves football. I love my family, so to be with them I watch a lot of football. I hate it when a player gets injured. I often worry about how the mom of the hurt guy is able to watch her baby lay on the playing field without storming the field herself.

However, I love it when the team and appropriately trained representatives for the team come and sunantilambanao their wounded warrior off the field. Once in awhile, a fellow team member will attempt to sunantilambanao their fellow player. If the injury is small, this is not big deal. But this kind of well-intentioned sunantilambanao could be life altering if the injury involves the neck or spinal area. For those kinds of big time sufferings, only the team trainers and physicians can help.

I suppose that there is a small suffering or two that we can handle without prayer – if we’re really mature (I’m not there yet). But beware putting hope in another player, when only the divine healer is equipped to handle our injury. When God’s Spirit comes alongside us, helping us along – we can rest in that rescue. We don’t have to tell him how to carry us off the field.

May we rest in God’s rescue today!

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