The Great Eight - Pt 15

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. (Romans 8:26-27 ESV).

We return to yesterday’s reading to explore with more depth the work of the Holy Spirit as He “helps us in our weakness.” The word "likewise" at the beginning of the reading means that Paul has been giving help to us in what he has been saying and now he wants to give us some more help by explaining that the Spirit himself helps us. The way he has been helping us is by telling us why our sufferings are worth enduring for Christ. All of verses we have seen give reasons for why we should hold fast to our hope in the midst of futility and decay and groaning and death. Now the apostle says, "likewise" – in the same way – the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. So in the next few days of our journey we will look at three questions that I think this text answers. The first question is “What does the Holy Spirit pray for us?” Don’t miss the fact that the way that the Spirit helps us in our weakness is by praying for us. That’s the instrument of our help. I’m often confounded about what I should pray for. That’s never the first order of our prayers. Remember how we talked about “groaning”? That’s the first order of our prayers. We utter an unintelligible cry from the depth of our pain. Then the Holy Spirit makes it intelligible. He puts our groans into words and pleas. The apostle says there are three things in specific that the Holy Spirit says. First, the Spirit asks for things that we don't know we should ask for; second, He asks for things that we don't know to ask for because of our weakness; and, third, He asks for things that are in accord with the will of God. Now think about what those three facts imply. When it says the Spirit prays for things we don't know to pray for, that rules out a lot of things. We certainly know we are to pray for holiness and faith and hope and joy and all the fruits of the Spirit and every other unqualified commandment in the Bible. There is absolutely no doubt that we are to pray for whatever God commands us to do. The revealed will of God is not in question. If God has plainly told us in the Bible to pursue something – like love or faith or righteousness or holiness or courage – then we know we are to pray for it. But this text says that the Spirit is helping us by praying for us when we don't know what to pray for. Now when is that? What sorts of things don't we know what to pray for? What are we not sure about? Here's where the word "weakness" in verse 26 becomes important, and the context of what has gone before. We’ll look more at this tomorrow. This weakness is so important to understand. Know this today: Just pray. Groan. Weep. He makes it work to our good!