Adults 
Spiritual Formation Weekly Devotionals
Spiritual Formation Weekly Devotionals
Weekly Devotional and Meditation
Going Deeper
While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:4-5
2 Corinthians 5:4-5
Opening Prayer
Gracious and Loving God,
You are my healer and comforter.
I bring all of my cares to You
this day and lay them at Your feet.
Amen
You are my healer and comforter.
I bring all of my cares to You
this day and lay them at Your feet.
Amen
As we long for our heavenly homeland, as we yearn for a deep center of peace in which to settle, we can feel within our spirits a groaning and an ache much like that of giving birth. For, as our pilgrim spirits mature, as they gestate and come into wholeness, they are filled with birth pangs, with the labor of letting go, with the struggle of new life which has been forming in us. The groaning within is especially intense when we experience certain forms of loss and brokenness. Adult transitions, confusion about who we are (particularly at mid-life), loss of deep relationships, desert prayer and darkness, harsh encounters with our false self or sinfulness, the pain of giftedness or creativity, all of these changes and challenges create a deep groaning in the human spirit, a crying out of the soul as one goes deeper.
This going deeper always involves a leaving behind. We cannot go deeper unless we let go of the place we have known. To descend into the depths of ourselves we must be willing to risk losing the security and the safety of that to which we have become so accustomed. It may mean leaving behind a certain self-image or some deeply rooted concepts, such as our understanding of what it means to be church or to be masculine or feminine, of what it means to be family or friend, of what it means to be successful or whole.
When we are experiencing the groaning within us—those webs of confusion or disorientation or loss-when our life appears to be filled with failure and ungained dreams, when darkness looms up large against the tiny light of our hope, when our inner poverty gasps for a touch of fullness, when our brokenness cries out to be mended, it is then that our groaning is met with the Spirit of God who groans within us. It is this God of life who blesses our inner birthing, standing by us, urging us to stay in the process, filling us with energy by the intimate touch of an eternal love shared with us.
~~Joyce Rupp
~~Joyce Rupp
Closing Prayer
Lord,
During those seasons of life that test my faith and strength,
I sometimes get weary and want to give up.
Help me to remember that You use times of trial
to make me holy.
Amen.
During those seasons of life that test my faith and strength,
I sometimes get weary and want to give up.
Help me to remember that You use times of trial
to make me holy.
Amen.
For reflection: Imagine seeing your life experiences through God's eyes. How does it look different when viewed from such a perspective of light, love, and forgiveness?