Sighs & Groans

Rom 8:26  “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 with groans that words cannot express.”

To me this is one of the most wonderfully reassuring verses in the Bible. 

Try as I might I never quite seem to measure up.  Even though I speak two languages there never seems to be enough words in either of them to fully express what is in my mind and in my heart. I stumble over my thoughts and I can’t seem to get out of my own way.  My prayers seem to be so selfish at times. I seem to always be asking for my own comfort, my own convenience.  I am so weak.  I want God to remove every obstacle in my way.

I can understand why so many people write out their prayers or prefer to recite prayers that someone else has written.  My mind wanders and I start to think of so many things.  I can’t seem to focus on what is really important. Now, if this is how I feel and I have been praying for all of my adult life, imagine how new converts feel when they are just trying to compose their first prayers.

Here is where the beautiful thing comes in.  It doesn’t so much matter what words we use, it matters that we want to talk to God.  This where the Holy Spirit steps in and becomes our intercessor.  He takes those things that are in our heart and He communicates them to the Father with sighs and groans too deep for words.  It comes from a place so deep that words aren’t enough, they are not sufficient to express the cry of our hearts.

The best prayers, the prayers that God answers are the ones where we pray God’s will back to Him.  The Spirit, because He dwells in our hearts and because He knows the heart of God becomes the perfect intercessor, the perfect go between. 

Rom 8:27 “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”

I’ve done a lot of counseling over the years.  Part of what I have had to do is mediate between two people who just can’t seem to communicate.  They talk at each other instead of with each other.  As a mediator, my job is to put things into words that they other party can understand.  What I do is take the meaning of the person talking and I put it into different words that the person hearing it can receive.  I don’t change the meaning, I just change the wording.  I try to help them understand the real meaning behind their words.  Sometimes I am more successful than others.

Where I am limited in my clumsy attempts to communicate, the Holy Spirit is masterful in conveying precisely the timbre of God’s will. 

Of course, our prayers going up to heaven are only half of the equation.  I need to quiet myself in meditation so that I can hear the response from God or else I am engaged in a monologue that has limited benefit to me.

We all want billboards when God talks to us, but He is much more inclined to speak to us through His Word and through whispers.  We are also much more likely to hear Him when we make it a habit not just to listen for His voice but to be obedient to His instruction.

For now I take comfort in knowing that His Spirit has taken up residence in my heart and that He conveys my feeble attempts at prayer and transforms them into sighs and groans that the Father completely understands and answers to.