That reading has one of my favorite Bible verses in it. No, it’s not that last one about nothing separating us from the love of Jesus. That’s a great verse, too, and I like that one. But the one I’m talking about is at the start of our reading. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself interecedes for us through wordless groans.”
I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of times when I’m not sure just exactly what I ought to pray for. I know that I need to pray. And I may know what I want God to do. But I also know that what I want may not be the best. So, I’m not sure what to pray for.
I could, of course, always pray that God’s will be done. And of course, that is what we pray every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We say, “Thy will be done.” But at the same time, just how effective is that? I mean, it’s a good reminder to us that, no matter what we may want God’s will should prevail. But on the other hand, it’s not like God needs our permission to do God’s will. If God wants to do something, God’s going to do it whether we agree or not, right?
When we pray, “Thy will be done”, we’re praying that our be the same as God’s will. That’s an important thing for us to pray, but it does not always help me in the situations I’m talking about. If I don’t know what I ought to pray for, it may be appropriate to pray, “Thy will be done”, but it’s not particularly satisfying.
And then, too, sometimes I may not know what I want God to do. Again, I know I need to pray. Maybe I know something’s not right and I know I need God to do something, but I just don’t know what it is. Or, maybe I know something’s not right but I’m not necessarily looking for God to do anything. Maybe I just feel like I need to be in God’s presence, like I need to get closer to God, even though I don’t have anything in particular to say to God.
Do you ever have those times? Those times when you know you need to pray, but you don’t know what it is you should say?
Well, if you do, fall back on this verse. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” All we need to do is place ourselves into God’s presence. If we do that, we don’t need to say anything. We can, if we want to, but we don’t have to. If we don’t know what to say, the Holy Spirit will do the praying for us.
And look what happens next. God will hear the Holy Spirit’s prayer on our behalf. Because God searches our hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit.
Now, it’s certainly okay for us to pray on our own behalf. I know many of you do that a lot, and that’s fine. I’m not telling you that you should not do that. In fact, I’d encourage you to keep doing praying. All I’m saying is that, if you have times when you don’t feel much like praying, or when you feel like praying but don’t really know what to pray, don’t let that stop you. Pray anyway.
And when you pray, don’t feel like you have to say anything. Just present yourself to God. Just say something like, “God, here I am. I don’t know what to say to you, but I’m here, and I’d just like to be with you for a while.” When we do that, the Holy Spirit will pray to God on our behalf. and God will hear, and God will answer.
We have such an awesome God, you know? It’s amazing that God wants us around at all. God is so much greater and holier and more powerful and better than we are that we’d be able to understand if God did not want to have anything to do with us. But instead, we are allowed by God to come into God’s presence. In fact, not only does God allow us to come, God invites us to come. God wants us to come. Nothing makes God happier than when we come into God’s presence. And if we come and have nothing to say, the Holy Spirit will say it for us. That’s how much God wants us to be in God’s presence.
So if you get discouraged, if you get down, if you feel like you need something and you don’t even know what it might be, think of this verse. And go to God. Go to God and say, “Here I am. Please be with me, and please let me be with you.” And then, just be silent and be in God’s presence. Don’t worry about what to say. Just be there. If there’s anything you need to say, the Holy Spirit will say it all for you.
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