How Do We Stay Present before God?

Rev. Donna waits for a bird that knocked itself out on her window.  

Donna waited.  The bird waited.  

Last Sunday, several people at CVC agreed that the Holy Spirit was the wobbliest wheel on their Trinity Tricycle.  I wonder what exactly the Holy Spirit DOES?

We heard Jesus say in John 14, that he was sending us an advocate and teacher who abides in us, a companion for the journey.  So he advocates for us, teaches us, and abides in us.

On Sunday we will continue our look at the Trinity, and in our Scripture reading, we will read more things that the Holy Spirit does for us:

• arousing us within

• helping us when we get tired in the waiting

• praying in and for us when we can't 

• keeping us present before God

I hear such good news in this passage - the Holy Spirit is going to  keep me present before God.  I have trouble staying present - the voice in my head chatters away like a monkey.  If it were up to ME to stay present to God I would fail miserably.  I’m also impatient, so “getting tired in the waiting” is something I struggle with.  Is there anything on this list that you struggle with?

Romans 8.22-28 MSG

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. 

The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us.  The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting.                                  

We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

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.

You moved on the waters, you called to the deep,

          then you coaxed up the mountains from the valleys of sleep;

          and over the eons you called to each thing:

          wake from your slumbers and rise on your wings.