How do I know whether my groaning is really grumbling? And how do I stop grumbling and make a practice of groaning? These are questions that were put to me during a recent exposition of Romans 8.
Groaning in Romans 8
Creation groans. All creation sighs as it waits for the revealing of the sons of God. It is waiting for the day when believing mankind will take up the role Adam was originally meant to fulfil: ruling over creation well. At present, we are doing a rotten job of it, and creation groans for that day.
Believers groan. We also sigh inwardly as we wait for the day of revelation, when we will be glorified and made like Christ.
The Spirit groans. God’s Spirit dwells within believers and sighs with us. When we do not know how to pray, he prays on our behalf, in line with God’s will, because he knows that will perfectly.
Groaning is a big theme here. It is not complaining, and it is not grumbling. It is a sigh that says, “This is not what I was made for. I can’t wait until I am well, until it is all put right, until Christ returns and things are as they should be.” It is a hopeful sigh.
Moaning Versus Groaning
Here is the difference. Moaning is hopeless. “Oh, this government.” “Ah, the petrol price.” “Oh, the weather.” It is faithless sighing. Groaning is faithful sighing: It still looks to God, and knows the Holy Spirit is with us in our suffering.
Paul says as much to the Philippians: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14–15). Grumbling and murmuring are not how the children of God are meant to live.
None of this means we may not feel pain. When you are suffering and you groan, it is completely acceptable and understandable. It doesn’t feel right, because it isn’t right: This is not the way things should be. But there is a line, and most of us know when we have crossed it.
So how do we move from grumbling to groaning? We begin by repenting of the grumbling. Then we look at the biblical picture and recognise that it is right to feel a certain level of discontent in this life. We should be discontented with our sanctification and long to be more holy. Groaning is a holy discontent, and that is good.
Moaning begins when we look only at our circumstances and take God out of the picture. It becomes self-focused and self-centred. Biblical groaning says, “I want to see things come right for the glory of God.” We will certainly benefit when things come right, but we want it because that is how God made the world to be.
How and Why
Anyone who reads the Psalms will see a healthy way of groaning: “How long, O Lord?” “Come quickly.” The words alone do not distinguish a groan from a grumble. “Lord, why is this happening in my life?” can be a faithful cry or a defiant one, spoken with a shaking fist: “How dare you bring this upon me?” What matters is not only what we say but how and why we are saying it.
The imprecatory Psalms show this well. They are not a licence to call down judgement on the taxi drivers when we are stuck in traffic, or on the government that has failed to fill the pothole in the road that damaged your tyre. They are always God-centred. The psalmist’s prayer is, in effect, “This is not how you designed the world to be. You are being robbed of your glory. Please bring judgement.” Prayed rightly against corruption, they say the same thing: “This is unjust, people are suffering, and it is not how you meant it to be. Please act, so that you may be glorified.”
Our hearts are the danger. Too often we are concerned about our own comfort more than about God’s glory.
Consider 1 Timothy 2:1–4:
Paul was writing about Roman rulers, yet nothing here is self-centred. He did not tell Timothy to pray against corrupt government so that life will be easier. He wanted a quiet and godly life so that the gospel might spread. You may well feel you are groaning under a corrupt government. Let that groan lead to godly prayer rather than to, “My life is miserable, and I’m emigrating.”
Stewarding Our Groaning
How, then, do we make a practice of healthy groaning? Whether it arises from pain, illness, bereavement, or job loss, we often find ourselves with unanswered questions. The key is to be a good steward of your groaning so that it does not morph into sinful moaning. In one sense, groaning is natural: Creation groans, and so do we. But we can steward it well, and that depends on what our goal in life is.
If my goal is to be holier, and for God to be more glorified, that will produce groaning. If I am thoughtless about my own sanctification and about God’s glory, I will simply coast along. Once I catch a vision of what God is like, and of what we are meant to become, holy discontent follows. Our groaning grows only as our vision of God grows. It is, at root, a theological matter.
I recently saw an interview with a Christian quarterback in the NFL, whose team had just lost a close game. You could see him sighing, grieved, because he knew the team had the potential to do better. When an athlete has a goal and fails to achieve it, he is not content. He knows he can do better, and the team can do better.
In the same way, as a church sees the glory of God and sees how much more we could be conformed to the image of Christ, it creates its own holy discontent. It leads to more prayer, more zeal, less moaning and more groaning for glory.
Groaning in the Sick Room
This has practical implications. Imagine someone who is physically unable to come to church anymore. The groan might be, “Lord, heal me, because I miss the fellowship of your word and your people. And if that is not your will, then take me home.” The moan would be, “I’m stuck in this bed. Why am I stuck in this bed? I’m aching, I’m in pain.” One looks to God and his people. The other looks only at self.
Joni Eareckson Tada is a great example. She sighs every day when she wakes, knowing that her pain is not what she was made for. But that gives her a holy discontent, a longing for the day when she will be made whole, and she wants to know Christ better.
Pain can lead us the same way. We were not made to be in pain. This is not what God described as “good.” But it is what God has allowed, and through it we are still to worship him. It is not perfect, but he is, and our groaning should drive our worship.
The Already and the Not Yet
Paul says later that those who have been justified have also been glorified. Looking at ourselves, we may wonder where that glory is. What Paul is saying is that it is as good as done: It will happen, and positionally it is already true. But there is also a “not yet.” That tension keeps us groaning. Glory keeps us groaning.
The more we focus on God himself and his glory, the more we groan in the right way instead of grumbling. As we focus on Christ, many, if not most, of our problems shrink or disappear. This is reflected again in Romans 8. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (v. 18). That is why we sigh in our suffering, and why those sighs do not turn into moans. We are saying, “This is moving me towards something better. This is not the endgame. There is hope.”