He Prays For Us…
- Because of Our Weakness -“the Spirit Helps us in our weakness,” -{v26}
- Because of Our Ignorance -“we do not know how to pray as we should.” -{v26}
- Because He Knows The WILL of GOD for us when we don’t! -“He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”-{v27}
There are times when we do not know what to pray, or at times we are praying but do not know what God is doing in a situation, for example Paul prayed for the thorn to be removed… God didn’t because that was not His will for Paul. Paul didn’t get the answer He wanted but…He got God’s answer and God’s will was done in the situation! -{2 Cor 1:7-9}
What comfort these verses have for the believers, Paul includes himself when he says “we” not “you” but he identifies for he too knew his weakness and at times it is that we do not know what to pray. We are at a loss, or we are praying the wrong thing in the situation.
Think of the times people have prayed for someone to get well and they died. Or they prayed for someone’s healing and they were sick all the days of their lives. They prayed what they believed was best, what they wanted, but it was not according to His will. We are limited in our understanding, because it is imperfect!
- We don’t always know what God is doing in a situation. Because we do not have absolute knowledge.
- We Don’t know the future but the Holy Spirit does
As Paul wrote in 1 Cor 13:12-“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
There is certain things we do know to be His will as revealed in His Word, but there are things we do not know in certain situations, what He wants to do. Does He want to heal someone or does He want to use them to comfort others as He has comforted them and in doing so have an influence in their lives for His sake-{Read 2 Cor 1:3-4}.
Consider The three Hebrew youths that were put in the furnace…. how many of us would have prayed God would have kept them from it, but it was in it that God gave a testimony of Himself to Nebuchadnezzer- ” But God did not allow the flames to harm these young men. Upon seeing such power behind the three, “Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.’” (Daniel 3:28).
Could you have seen that outcome? Would you have even thought to pray, “LORD, Please have them tied up and thrown into that fiery furnace, and don’t let even the smell of smoke be upon them when you bring them out and let the king see them walk freely about in the furnace and see Another in the Fire with them that the King might be witnessed to.”
No, I doubt it, we would probably be pleading with the LORD to keep them from the flames of the furnace…We are limited in what God is doing and desires to do in a situation! But God is not limited and He was accomplishing His Will in the matter! We do not have all knowledge to know what God is doing or will do in a situation, we are limited, weak, ignorant, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us in our weakness, ignorance, limitations of the knowledge of God working His will out in a situation that will glorify Him best!-{Read Daniel 3:25-26}
We do not always know what God wants to do in a situation and while our intentions may be good they are not God’s! So we need “help” and God provides the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness, our inability in prayer to always know His will in the matter. Thank Him for that!
Our weakness inability, ignorance should not lead us to despair but gratitude that God has provided The Holy Spirit to aid us in the matter! He is interceding for us. And the way it is written is that He is always praying for us in our weakness. How sweet and strengthening and comforting is this truth!
At times we often pray what we think is best but do not see or know what God is doing but the Holy Spirit does and He prays in harmony with the will of God.
And it is as though He “straightens” out our prayers when they are off base and presents them to the Father according “to the will of God.” This is part of the “good” that God works out in giving us the Gift of the Holy Spirit who prays for us continuously in our weakness and “helps” us. The word “Help” has the idea of “rescue” in it. He comes alongside our burden and helps us as a person who carries a heavy load, such as a log and someone comes alongside and grabs the other end of the heavy log and lifts with them, facing them, face to face, helping them.
Be encouraged, when there are times you don’t know what to pray, KNOW the Holy Spirit is FOR you not against you and is praying for you in your weakness, ignorance, because He knows the will of God for you in the circumstance. And because He is praying we know that all things God causes to work together for good… and the ultimate end of that good is eternal bliss with God in glory!-{Read Rom 8:28-29}
How wonderful we can thank God for the Sustaining Hope when we do not know how or what to pray for in our weakness the Holy Spirit helps us and intercedes for us…
- In Our Weakness
- In our Ignorance
- He Always knows the Will of God in every situation….
- We Can Trust and Thank God for His Provision and Promise in this passage
What comfort, what sustaining hope and encouragement for us !
When you don’t know what to pray KNOW the Holy Spirit is praying the will of God for you! A good attitude to have “Father not my will, your will be done, Father glorify Your Name.”
In the midst of your weakness, difficulties and experience of suffering, sickness, persecution, perplexities, or see your prayers not answered the way you had wished for and indeed the opposite seems to happen, don’t despair as though God is against you for He is not. He is for you! And He has given the Holy Spirit in your weakness through helping you by His praying for you according to the will of God. Be thankful He is continually praying for you. And He knows what is best and what God’s goal is in the situation and that He is working to bring about that which is best and most Glorifies God in the specifics of your situation, working it all out for good in your spiritual development, the exaltation of Christ, in the midst of our weakness and ignorance! What a tender, precious God we have! The Holy Spirit is praying for us! You have Some One praying for you when at times you don’t know what to pray for in the situation. Rest in the fact The Holy Spirit does and He is praying for you!
TAKE HOPE;
HOW ENCOURAGING to know even when we do not know what to Pray as we ought, that God has supplied the Holy Spirit who is praying for us according to the will of God and we can be assured and know for certainty that God causes all things including our weakness, ignorance, to work out for our eternal good because the Holy Spirit is praying according to the will of GOD for us! -{Read Rom 8:28-29}
Take hope from God and what He has revealed in these verses…
Romans 8:26-27 says…
“…the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” 🙂