“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)
Perhaps you are suffering now or you are going through a tough period of trials in your job, your family relationships, or direction for your life. You do not really know how you should pray or what you should be praying for. Not to worry, if you are a born again believer the Holy Spirit lives within you and He will pray for you. My wife and I recently read a book entitled Suffering by Paul David Tripp. He does an awesome job of explaining what the Holy Spirit does for you when you don’t know how or just emotionally cannot bring yourself to pray. (He knows something of suffering. He was suddenly hit with a disease in the prime of his life that put him in excruciating pain for days and then required numerous surgeries over a period of six months and he still is unable to do physically the things he loves to do.) Here is what he has to say:
“Pain is painful, and it is painful not only in a physical, relational, situational way but also spiritually and emotionally. There are times when we are so confused that we do not know what in the world we are supposed to pray for. There are times when we are so emotionally distraught that the words just won’t come. In my suffering there were times of unbearable pain when all I could do was pray, ‘Lord, help me! Lord, help me!’
In your pain, God doesn’t require that you pray biblically literate, theologically rich prayers. He doesn’t reject your prayers because you don’t have the right words, spoken in the right way. In fact, when prayer is hard, he not only doesn’t reject you; he offers you help. And the help he offers is not a lesson in how to pray when it’s hard to pray. The help He gives is Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit. When you don’t know what to cry, He carries your cries to the Father. The Spirit, who knows your heart and what you need, turns your groanings into words.
You see, in your most confused and emotional moments, you are far from alone because God blesses you with His intervening grace. Verses 26-27 tell you that at the very moment you’re groaning, the Spirit is representing you and your needs to the Father. God knows what you are going through and is not unkind so as to reject messy, chaotic, emotional prayers offered in your moment of need. He carries them to the throne of God where they will be heard and answered. When no one hears and understands your cries, in those moments when it feels useless to cry, God listens, hears, and answers. He always greets your groanings without judgment. You don’t have to rehearse your prayers, you don’t have to wait until you’re more composed and able to think clearly, and you don’t have to worry that you’ll say the wrong thing. Your Lord listens with a tender and sympathetic heart, and he makes sense of groans that no one else could ever make sense of. He answers not because of what’s in you but because of the grace that’s in Him.” (Suffering by Paul David Tripp, pp137-138)
Are you in pain today? Are you confused about a decision you have to make? Do you need God to deliver you from a giant or help you cross the Red Sea? Cry out to Him today and don’t worry about how you sound or look. He knows your pain. He hears your cry!
Pray:
1. God I cry out to you today to come and deliver me from the pain in my life! Help carry me through the next minute, hour, and day.
2. Thank you God that You will never leave me nor forsake me. You are my “Strong tower,” "my shield," and my "shelter from the storm!"
3. Help me never to forget that when all men forsake me, that I can always depend on You and You alone.
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