Wordless Groans

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”  Romans 8:26-27

I will be honest with you (by the way, honest is how we should always be with God and everyone else), in that sometimes I absolutely do not know how to pray or rather what to pray for.  We can get so burdened, confused, worried, or afraid that it is very difficult to know what to ask God for or for what actions He desires for us to take in certain situations in which we are involved.  Scripture tells us that we must pray in God’s will, but there are times when that seems nearly impossible because we don’t know what His exact or specific will is for some situations.  Looking up the term “will” in Strong’s Concordance gave me thousands of scriptures that contain the word “will”.  In the above-referenced verse 27, the term “will” is translated from the Greek “boulema” (boo’-lay-mah) and means “resolve or purpose”.  That tells me that no matter what we pray for or ask God to do for us, His answer will always be in line with His purpose because He is resolved to follow through on His plan for His people and for the future.

We should not let fear of praying for something that might not be in God’s will keep us from communicating with our Heavenly Father.  When Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit helps our infirmities, I think he was predominantly referring to our spiritual weaknesses in not always knowing God’s will and not always knowing what to pray.  The Holy Spirit can also help our physical infirmities, but I believe He is more focused on helping us grow in faith and Christlikeness.  Some folks have made the statement that they believe that God wants us to be happy.  It’s not that He desires for us to be unhappy; it’s just that He is more desirous of us being holy.  It is impossible to live a holy life without the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever been praying and just didn’t know how to put your requests into words?  This is where the Holy Spirit does some of His most important work.  Left on our own, we tend to pray selfish prayers or generalized prayers, like “Lord, please bless so and so” rather that asking God to bless someone in a specific way.  At times, we just don’t know how to be specific.  On the other hand, though, we don’t always need to know all the gory details (which could be akin to gossip) of a person’s problem in order to ask God to intervene in his or her situation.  The Bible commentator Matthew Henry must have experienced these same feelings of inadequacy for he wrote, “…we are often at a loss–graces are weak, affections cold, thoughts wandering, and it is not always easy to find the heart to pray”.  Talk about a “wandering mind”.  It is so easy to get distracted by other thoughts that invade our prayers.  And like Mr. Henry said, sometimes we just don’t feel like praying.

Mr. Henry went on to say, “It is not the rhetoric and eloquence, but the faith and fervency of our prayers that the Spirit works as an intercessor in us.”  The Holy Spirit intercedes with groanings deep within Himself that there are no words with which to express His intent desires for our communication with the Father.  To put it simply, the Holy Spirit “fixes” our prayers to be in line with what God desires.  I guess we could think about it like an editor who examines our writing and makes corrections so that what we write makes sense.  God is the One who searches our hearts and finds the expressions of the Holy Spirit who has filled our hearts with the godly desires that we could not express.  God knows what we need, but He still wants us to ask.  Jesus is in Heaven interceding for us and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us in our hearts.  Talk about a support system!  We need always to pray in God’s will, and the Holy Spirit makes it possible to do just that.  God expects certain things from us and then gives us the ability and/or power to do what He asks.  God is good, all the time.