Heavenly Father, thank you for a new day and a new opportunity to love and serve you. Thanks you for the gift of your Holy Spirit and for the wonderful work he is doing in our lives. Amen Romans 8:26-28 (NIV)
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
This passage in Romans is one of my favorites because of the comforting promises that it contains. It is fantastic to know that when we face turbulence and uncertainty in our lives and don’t know what or how to pray, the Holy Spirit is interceding for us before the throne of grace. What a tremendous gift.
Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is reminding us of several things in this passage. First, he reminds us that in our weakness when we don’t know how to pray about a situation, the Spirit is praying in our place. Second, he reminds us that the prayers that the Spirit is praying for us are always in accordance with the will of God. Third, through the prayers of the Spirit on our behalf, God is at work, answering the Spirit’s prayer for our good and his glory.
When we pray, we desperately want to be praying the prayers that are on the heart of God because we know that those are the prayers that God always answers. However, in our weakness and confusion when we don’t know how or what to pray, we can be confident that the Holy Spirit in us is praying perfect prayers that our Heavenly Father always honors.
I love what theologian N.T. Wright writes about the unspoken prayers of our heart, “God hears and answers the prayer which we only know as painful groanings, the tossings and turnings of an unquiet spirit standing before its maker with the pains and puzzles of the world heavy on its heart.”
Lord, thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit and for the prayers that He is praying in our stead when we are struggling to know what and how to pray. Amen.
jhf