suffering

Who Me?

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Who Me?” Exodus 3:1-12

God knew the suffering of God’s people. A new leader rose to power. He stirred memories of former greatness and fanned the flames of national pride. He promised a better future and denounced the evil of other nations. He saw enemies everywhere. They practiced other faiths, loved differently, came from other lands, or held differing political convictions. His special police roamed the streets in brown shirts and jack boots. His dogs of war pushed past borders, greedy for new lands. His enemies began to disappear: vanished in the middle of the night, taken from workplaces, snatched off the street. The trains rolled on and the camps filled up, smoke rising against sullen skies. Some fled to avoid catastrophe, leaving everything behind to keep their lives.

God knew the suffering of God’s people. The color of your skin determined the quality of your life. They knew the back of the bus, the wrong side of the tracks, and the third-rate school. They endured the endless cycle of share cropper debt, and the daily humiliations of the maid, the cook, the laundress, the mammy. They had no political representation. They couldn’t vote. Men in white hoods burned crosses on their lawns. Men in speeding cars tossed Molotov cocktails through living room windows. If they forgot where they belonged, they faced jail time, a beating, a lynching.

God knew the suffering of God’s people. Long ago, they fled famine to seek sanctuary and grain from brother Joseph in Egypt. But a new Pharaoh ruled who didn’t know Joseph. A new Pharoah arose who feared God’s people. He saw them as sub-human foreigners, beasts of burden to be exploited and controlled. He oppressed them with forced work. He punished theme with harsh taskmasters. He murdered their boy babies. They ate the bread of suffering and drank the tears of bitter grief.

They escaped over the Alps, braving the heights and the weather in search of sanctuary. They scurried one by one, two by two, sometimes in small families through the streets of the village of Le Chambon. They were desperate and frightened, fleeing certain death for an uncertain future. One cold and snowy evening, Magda Trocmé opened her door to a woman in a thin coat with terribly worn, wet shoes. Magda invited her guest in and put the woman’s shoes in the oven to dry. Later, the smell of smoke alerted them that the worn, wet shoes were ruined. She fed the woman, gave her a bed for the night, and then quietly appealed to neighbors for shoes. Her husband André secured false documents on the black market to safeguard their guest’s travel. In the morning, they sent her south to safety in new shoes.

She worked as a seamstress for affluent white neighbors. One day, she left work, shopped at the local discount drugstore, and boarded a bus for home. She took a seat in the middle of the bus next to a Black man and across from two Black women. She was 42-years-old and the bursitis in her shoulders was acting up. As the bus continued along its regular route, the white-only seats filled up. At the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, several white passengers boarded, but there weren’t enough seats. The driver demanded that Black passengers in the middle rows move. Everyone near Rosa Parks did, but she didn’t. When the police came, she was arrested and charged with breaking state law. Later, she was tried and convicted. She was fined $10, with a further $4 in court fees, equivalent to about $171 today.

God knew the suffering of God’s people, but Moses wasn’t so sure that he wanted to get involved. Long ago, he left Egypt and the Hebrew people far behind. In fact, he fled the Nile delta as a wanted man, having killed an Egyptian taskmaster for abusing an Israelite slave. Moses was born an Israelite and raised as a foundling in Pharaoh’s house, but he felt he didn’t belong anywhere. Now in midlife, he had a good life in a new land. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses could think of every reason to not get involved. He didn’t have a dog in that fight anymore, he wasn’t eloquent, and Pharaoh would never listen to him anyway. But God assured Moses that those excuses didn’t matter because God would be with him. Moses returned to his father-in-law’s camp, packed up his wife Zipporah and the kids, and returned to Egypt.

Rev. Andre Trocmé, his wife Magda, and the residents of the Alpine parish of Le Chambon, France, helped more than 5,000 German refugees during the second World War. They did so despite the Nazi occupation of their nation. They did so despite incredible peril to their own safety and freedom. Perhaps most extraordinary about their actions was their belief that they were utterly ordinary people, practicing the simplest acts of Christian hospitality. Late in life, when Magda was asked why she had hosted that first refugee, she responded, “It was dinner time.”  She opened the door, and before she knew it, the community was caught up in God’s great purpose for their lives.

Rosa Parks’ act of civil disobedience on that Montgomery bus sparked much broader social action by Blacks and progressive whites in her community. It launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Soon after Rosa’s trial, 15,000 Montgomery residents attended a planning meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke and Ralph Abernethy shared the demands of their civil disobedience. It took 381 days, but segregation on Montgomery’s public transportation system eventually ended. Many years later in her autobiography, Rosa Parks wrote that she had refused to yield her seat that day not so much out of a sense of holy purpose as it was from the awareness that she was just plain “tired of giving in.” She played a pivotal role in bending the arc of the moral universe toward God’s justice.

Upon his return to Egypt, Moses went to Pharaoh with God’s demands. Just as Moses had anticipated, Pharaoh did not listen. Ten times, God sent Moses to Pharoah with the bold demand for freedom. Ten times, God sent plagues to soften the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. The Nile turned to blood. Frogs, gnats, and flies swarmed. Pestilence and boils erupted. Hail fell. Locusts destroyed the harvest. Darkness fell across the land. Finally, the firstborn of all Egypt died. When Pharaoh yielded to God’s demand, Moses led the people out of Egypt and on to the holy mountain, where the bush had burned but was not consumed. God blessed Moses and the people with the Law and the promise of a land that would flow with milk and honey. In saying yes to God’s call, Moses served a holy purpose that ended the people’s suffering.

God knows the suffering of God’s people. They dig through the rubble of a city destroyed by earthquake. They thirst for clean water in sub-Saharan Africa. They wait in squalid detention centers to be deported to a land where they once fled death squads. They languish in the corridors of skilled nursing facilities where family never visits. Their civil and voting rights are yet again at risk. They stand in grocery store aisles and wonder how to put enough food on the table to feed their families. God knows the suffering of God’s people.

God calls us to join God’s great work of help and healing, justice and liberation. Some days, all we can do is think of all the reasons that we really cannot commit. We’re too busy. We work too many hours. We have too few financial resources. We are too old or too young. We have a few too many personal problems. We don’t know what the neighbors might think.

This morning, the stories of Le Chambon, Rosa Parks, and Moses remind us that when God calls us, all we need is a heart that will offer hospitality. All we need is a spirit that is sick and tired of giving in. All we need is to trust that God will be with us despite our shortcomings. God knows the suffering of God’s people. So do we. When God calls through the burning bush or the importune neighbor or the overcrowded confines of a city bus or the everyday encounters of our own lives, may we say, “Here I am. Use me.”

Resources

Roger Nam. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, August 30, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15

Kimberly Russaw. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, September 3, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15-6

Cameron BR Howard. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, August 30, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15-7

Philip Hallie. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. Harper Perennial, 1994.

Rosa Parks, Jim Haskins. My Story. Puffin Books, 1999.

Exodus 3:1-12

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb,[a] the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

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Wounded and Blessed

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Wounded and Blessed” Genesis 32:22-31

We are wounded.

Olivia was married for three years when she learned that her husband was having an affair with her best friend. She remembered the joy and promise of her wedding day when she stood at the chancel with her maid of honor on one side and her new husband on the other. When she heard news of the infidelity, Olivia didn’t know what hurt more: that the man she loved had broken his vow or that her longtime friend had betrayed their friendship. She feels deeply hurt and deceived. It has scarred her self-worth. It is hard for her to trust.

Terry and Ben love children. They’ve been deeply disappointed by their inability to have them. Years of trying without any success were followed by infertility treatments. Twice they rejoiced when Terry got pregnant, and twice they mourned when they suffered miscarriage. They are tender with one another and have accepted that parenting isn’t for them. But they grieve their loss. Giving up on parenting has left a spiritual void that’s hard to fill.

Aaron enjoyed working for the same company since graduating from college, but a corporate buy-out radically changed his feelings about the job. His new supervisor is verbally abusive and believes in profit at any price. As second-in-command, Aaron runs interference between his co-workers and the boss’s bad behavior. It has him chewing antacids as if they were candy. Aaron feels trapped by the paycheck, working in ways that compromise his true self. He feels lonely and empty.

Jacob was wounded. In our reading from Genesis, Jacob’s midnight wrestling match left him wounded and limping. That injury was only the most recent in a lifetime of struggles and misadventures that led to his solitary stance on the banks of the River Jabbok. First, there was the incidental injustice of being the second-born twin, deprived of the firstborn’s birthright and blessing. He spent all his growing years scheming about that. Then, he realized that the father whom he loved didn’t love him so much. Next, Jacob was duped into working 14 years for his one true love Rachel. Now, his family camp was an endless turmoil of rivalrous wives, concubines, and children, all vying for his affection. Jacob was headed home after more than twenty years in exile. Jacob couldn’t go back because he was alienated from his father-in-law Laban, and he was reluctant to move ahead. His older brother Esau, whom he disliked and feared, was on the way to greet him, accompanied by an entourage of 400 men. The wound that would leave Jacob limping on the riverbank was simply a symbol of a lifetime of broken relationships, abused trust, and less-than-righteous behavior.

We are wounded.  Like Olivia, we have known betrayal and broken trust. Like Terry and Ben, we have known grief, disappointment, and dashed dreams. Like Aaron, we have labored in ways that compromise our values and leave us feeling stressed, fruitless, and alone. Like Jacob, we have been loved too little, we haven’t gotten what we want, we have even behaved in ways that alienate and hurt those closest to us. Every life is touched by wounds that hurt our hearts and compromise our well-being. We may even wonder where God is amid the woundedness. Does God see us? Does God love us? Are we accepted in all our brokenness?

On the banks of the River Jabbok, as the middle-aged Jacob considered the wounds of his past and the inescapability of facing his estranged brother Esau, he discovered that he wasn’t alone. A mysterious stranger appeared and the two began to wrestle. This midnight stranger was every bit as tenacious, strong, and cunning as Jacob—and more. At some point during those hours of dark struggle, Jacob realized that he was grappling with God. Yahweh was in the struggle with him, right alongside him, holding tight, not giving up. Maybe not a rival so much as an ally, a support, a holy help. There was no denying that Jacob was wounded. He had to face it and his disjointed leg wouldn’t let him forget it. Yet Jacob was blessed. Right there, as Jacob looked at his wounded life head on and doubted his future, God was there with blessing and an invitation to grow into a new identity as one who struggles mightily and yet prevails.

When Hebrew scholar Hemchand Gossai reads the story of Jacob’s wrestling match with God, he points out that redemption comes to us in brokenness. It is often when we feel fearful and uncertain, it is often when we acknowledge the wounds that we bear, that we find God. There is room in the household of God for those who are betrayed and find it hard to trust. There is room in the household of God for those who know grief, disappointment, and dashed dreams. There is room in the household of God for those who feel stressed, fruitless, and alone. There is room in the household of God for those who love too little, want too much, and have behaved in ways that hurt and alienate others. There is room in God’s household for Jacob. There is room in God’s household for us. If ever we doubt that truth, we need only remember that we worship a God who chose to be wounded, suffer, and die on a cross—all for us. We are wounded, and yet we are loved, accepted, and blessed.

When we know both our woundedness and our blessedness, we are freed to move on, into the future that God holds ready for us, a future in which we grow into the people whom God created us to be. Priest and author Henri Nouwen taught that in the healing of our wounds, we may find a new path and purpose. Like spinning straw into gold, our awareness and integration of our wounded past may allow us to live as a gift and a blessing to others. For Nouwen, that meant facing the wounds of his childhood, accepting a religious vocation, and writing 42 books, including The Wounded Healer. Henri was passionate about helping and healing others, especially those who lived with developmental and physical disabilities.

Presbyterian prayer warrior, poet, and author Arianne Braithwaite Lehn says that when we give our wounds to God something healing—transformational—happens. In her prayer-poem entitled “When I need God to redeem this painful, sad, hard thing,” Arianne writes directly to God,

“You do not create pain for me to grow

Or cause the heartache of my soul,

But are the expert Shaper of life’s ashes.

Somehow this terrible thing—

When given in earnest to you today

(and many tomorrows from now!)—

Becomes an open channel where

Something amazing will flow…

I’ll begin a new kind of dance,

Letting my limp remind

My soul and world

How broken bodies

Learn exquisite new rhythms.

With you, pain finds a home

In something larger than itself.

And, sacred scars hold haven over

Wounds that will someday bless.”

When we give our wounds to God, there is healing and blessing for our lives, and perhaps even the lives of others.

Olivia got into counseling when her marriage unraveled after the betrayal of her husband and best friend. She learned a lot about herself and she discovered, as she faced her pain, that she has a gift for accompanying others. She earned a Master of Social Work degree and now works in marriage and family counseling.

Although Terry and Ben were unable to have children of their own, they have made a loving and helping difference in the lives of many children. Ben is a mentor to at-risk kids at his local Boys & Girls Club. Terry tutors refugee children in English as a second language, and helps those vulnerable little ones learn to read, write, and speak.

Aaron decided to leave his hostile work environment. He started his own business, beginning as a consultant for the company he left. He now has four employees. Two came from his old workplace. It can be stressful, but Aaron feels it is a good stress as he builds a business in keeping with his ethical principles and creates a supportive workplace where employees thrive.

Our spiritual ancestor Jacob limped forward into the future that God held ready. The next day, when he met the brother whom he had deceived, it was with humility and respect. There were tears and kisses, hugs and peace. Then, Jacob and Esau went their separate ways, both wounded, both blessed.

We are wounded, my friends. And yet, we are blessed. May we give our wounds to God, who is the “expert Shaper of life’s ashes,” and live as a blessing to ourselves and others.

Resources

Matthew Schlimm. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31-14

Amy Merrill Willis. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31

Mark S. Smith. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, August 6, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31-13

Wil Gafney. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, July 31, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31-2

Arianne Braithwaite Lehn. Ash & Starlight. Chalice Press, 2023.

Henri J.M. Nouwen. The Wounded Healer. Doubleday, 1972.

Diana Raab. “Are You a Wounded Healer” in Psychology Today, Jan. 26, 2022. Accessed online at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-empowerment-diary/202201/are-you-a-wounded-healer

Genesis 32:22-31

22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

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Sighs Too Deep for Words

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Sighs Too Deep for Words” Romans 8:26-39

Monica has given up on praying. She’s a single Mom with two young children. She works two jobs to try to cover the bills. She tends to little ones, including her own, at a local daycare during the week. She minds the register at the Quikmart on the weekends. Her ex plays games with his child support payments, so she is almost always on the verge of a financial crisis. Monica has prayed for better work. She has prayed that her ex would change. She has prayed that the landlord will be patient and that her children won’t know how stressed and worried she truly is. Monica believes in God. She just isn’t sure that God believes in her.

Fred isn’t sure what to pray for or how to pray these days. He lost his longtime job when the boss caught him drinking again. Then last month, he got pulled over for a DWI—and it wasn’t the first. The judge ruled that Fred could either spend some time in jail or try a residential treatment program for his alcoholism. It isn’t as if Fred hasn’t tried to quit drinking before. He has even had a few stretches of sobriety, but he always ends up right back where he started, defeated, ashamed, and drinking. His wife has had it and his friends are worried.

Lori and Phil used to pray together, but that was before Lori’s parents moved in. When Lori’s Dad broke his hip, the social worker at the hospital said that the two could no longer live on their own.  Her Mom has Alzheimer’s disease. Her once sunny disposition is now often angry and confused. Lori left work to care for her parents. Each week brings a new round of doctor visits and healthcare expenses.  Not long ago, her Mom wandered off while working in the garden and the police brought her home. Lori and Phil feel like they are failing as caregivers. They know things will only get worse, and they are too tired and overwhelmed to even know what to pray for.

We all have times when we feel that we are clean out of prayers. We have worried God for years about the same concern. We get overwhelmed by circumstances beyond our control. We are not our better selves and the burden of our bad behavior feels like a wedge between us and the holy. We wonder if God hears us. We question if God cares about us. We fear that God doesn’t love us.

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome suggests that those first Christians in the imperial city also found it hard to pray. We know that the Roman church found a start in the Jewish community there. The origin of the Jewish colony at Rome dated to the year 63 BCE, when General Pompei, after the capture of Jerusalem, brought back a large number of prisoners of war who were sold as slaves. Those who earned their freedom lived in the poorest quarters of the city where they served as peddlers, shopkeepers, domestic workers, and tradespeople. We know that when Christian teachers came to Rome, it split the Jewish community into two camps: traditionalists and those who believed that Jesus is Lord. The conflict between the two parties was so bitter that in the year 49 CE, Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from the city, just to keep the peace.

The circumstance of the Christian community certainly needed prayer: exile, poverty, infighting, and imperial persecution. Yet the Roman Christians, perhaps worn out and hopeless, struggled to pray. Paul, in the verses leading up to today’s reading, describes the Romans as groaning, as if with the terrible birth pangs of a woman in labor, as they waited, short on hope and long on fear, for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

The Apostle Paul assured his friends that even when they could not find the words to pray, God knew their circumstance. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had promised would be their advocate and comforter, was at work within them. With sighs too deep for words, the Spirit interceded, bridging the gap between heaven and earth, even when they could not. God knew and God cared. It might have felt impossible for them to imagine, but all things would work together for their good.

When our spiritual ancestor John Calvin read Paul’s words to the church in Rome, he made the connection between the suffering of the Roman Christians and the suffering of Christ. In the neighborly and imperial persecution that the Romans daily endured, they knew something of the experience of Jesus. They personally identified with a Savior who was condemned by powerful enemies and persecuted even to the point of death on the cross. As they identified with Christ in his suffering, Jesus was with them in theirs.

Calvin wrote, “There is then no reason for anyone to complain that the bearing of their cross is beyond their own strength, since we are sustained by a celestial power. . .. The Spirit takes on himself a part of the burden, by which our weakness is oppressed; so that he not only helps and [sustains] us, but lifts us up; as though he went under the burden with us.” Far from being separated from God, the Roman church was united with Christ, who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, shouldered their burdens with them and for them.

I’m sure that Paul’s words sounded every bit as comforting and reassuring to the church in Rome as they do to us. In all our times of careworn sorrow, in all our places of overwhelming need, in all our frailty and failure, we are not alone. The Spirit is here, praying within us. Jesus is alongside us, bearing the load.

Paul assures us this morning that nothing can separate us from the love of God, a love that was most fully expressed in the suffering of Christ. Not hardship or distress or persecution; not famine or indigence or peril or sword. Not single parenthood or low-paying jobs. Not deadbeat dads or having more month than money. Not alcohol or meth or opiates. Not lost jobs or strained marriages. Not DWIs or court-mandated rehab. Not growing years and declining health. Not broken hips or Alzheimer’s. Not the mounting costs of doctors or the inadequacy of senior care in the Adirondacks. Nothing. That’s right nothing can separate us from the love of God. In all these things, in all these everyday challenges that can leave us feeling at a loss for words, at a loss for prayer, we are more than conquerors through Jesus, whose Spirit prays within us. Thanks be to God.

I like to think that Paul’s words encouraged the people in Rome. In Paul’s reassurance of the work of the Holy Spirit and the love of God, their groans became language.  The Romans found the courage to pray for themselves and pray for one another. How else could the Roman church transform within a few centuries from a frightened and persecuted sect of Judaism to the most powerful religious center in the empire?

As we go forth into this week, we will be certain to meet others who do not have the wherewithal to pray. They are stressed-out parents and over-worked professionals. They struggle with addiction or mental illness. They just got a tough diagnosis. They are reeling with grief. They feel alone and separated from God.  Perhaps this morning, we could take our leading from the Holy Spirit. We could pray with them and for them, even if we simply draw near with the love of Christ and our sighs too deep for words. May it be so.

Resources

Anna Bowden. “Commentary on Romans 8:26-39” in Preaching This Week, July 30, 2023. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org.

Israel Kumundzandu. “Commentary on Romans 8:26-39” in Preaching This Week, July 30, 2017. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org.

Mary Hinkle Shore. “Commentary on Romans 8:26-39” in Preaching This Week, July 26, 2020. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org.

George Edmundson. “The Church in Rome in the First Century,” Lecture 1 of The Bampton Lectures, Oxford University. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 2013.

John Calvin. Commentary on Romans. Accessed online at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/calvin/.

Romans 8:26-39

26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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