21 that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth.
23 But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God's gifts also groan within ourselves, as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free.
24 For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For which of us hopes for something we see?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express.
27 And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.