When We Don't Know What To Pray...

I’ve been there, let me tell you. There have been times when all I could do was say, "God, I’m just not sure how to pray about this. I don’t know what to ask for. I don’t even know IF I should ask for anything here. I just don’t know."

So what happens? Well, it’s safe to say from our passage today that God is not powerless when we can’t get our minds and spirits around the situation or circumstance enough to formulate the "right" words.

Because our passage says that...

the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

What does that mean, exactly?

I generally think it means that the Spirit acts as an interpreter, if you will, of the pain in our heart.

He hears our crying heart, and vocalizes our heart-cry in ways that our human limitations can’t.

We go..."(BLANK....)" and the Spirit says, "Hey - I’ve got it covered. Father, what Brian’s trying to say is this..." and He speaks what our heart is aching to say but just can’t push through our brains and lips.

Some of my charismatic and Pentecostal brothers and sisters say that this is an instance where the Spirit speaks through us by speaking in tongues.

However, I believe that this passage is saying that the groans of the Spirit are beyond anything capable of coming from our mouths. It is the Spirit, not the Spirit-empowered believer who is doing the communicating.

So is this just some brainless activity on our part? Hardly. We actively admit our inability to pray, asking the Holy Spirit to speak on our behalf.

And He comes alongside us, giving holy voice to our heart’s cry. Isn’t it great that God is not limited by our feeble human vocabularies? I think so.

The second way the Holy Spirit helps us when we don’t know what to pray is to speak for us. The third way He helps us is that...

The Holy Spirit prays for us.

Verse 27 says Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Verse 26 talks about how the Spirit prays with us, giving voice to our prayer. This verse talks about how the Spirit offers His prayer to the Father on our behalf.

Now how’s that for cool? I know that many of you pray for me and my family on a regular basis, and I appreciate that. Really.

But I hate to tell you this - I’m REALLY glad the Spirit prays for me! Really, really, really, really glad. Really glad.

Folks, the Spirit knows things about you that even YOU don’t know about yourself. So who better to come to the Father and pray for you?

I said back in the first section that the word Jesus used for the Holy Spirit, "parakletos," means "comforter." Well, it also means "advocate." An advocate is someone who pleads the case of another.

The Holy Spirit is also your holy advocate, pleading for your good to the Father.

And He’s in good company! Jesus does the same thing for us! Look at Hebrews 7:25, printed in your note-taking guide:

Hebrews 7:25 -

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Circle the phrase, "lives to intercede." Jesus lives to intercede for us. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us.