23RD SEPTEMBER
Romans 8:26-27
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
Pray, even when you don’t know what to pray!
This passage is right, isn’t it? We’re weak in prayer. We often don’t know how to pray about something. We know that we long for God to heal someone, or to open someone’s heart to him, or to bring some other outcome. But we don’t know what God wants in this particular situation, and so we hesitate.
But God doesn’t want you to hesitate. He wants you to pray about it. Tell him you don’t know what to pray, but here is what you want. God promises you in this passage that the Holy Spirit whom he’s placed in your heart will take your request and intercede for you according to the will of God.
God will get involved because you prayed, even though you were not sure how to pray about it. Think about the picture of the Holy Spirit in this chapter. He’s taking our needs (even the ones we don’t know we need) to the Father with such passion and love FOR US that it’s too deep for words! Should that not encourage us to pray and pray unceasingly?
God is inviting you to make prayer a much more central part of your life. Pray to the Holy Spirit that he would guide you in your prayers and help you pray “according to the will of God.”
MAKE IT PERSONAL
Do you have to think further back than one month to see God’s presence in your life? If so you might need to revisit your prayer life and see what you can improve.