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Verse:Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us. … Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is. —Romans 8:26, 27, NKJV
I was blessed recently by two articles answering a teenager’s question: “What should I do? I don’t feel like praying.” These articles not only reminded me of some important prayer principles but also taught me several new ones. First, the Bible instructs us to pray continuously (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
But the question is, how —especially when we don’t feel like praying and when our heart is too heavy, pained, or angry to even think of what to say? Yet this question is answered in today’s theme text. Second, prayer is more than just asking for something, thanking God, or praising Him. Prayer starts when we accept God’s presence. Romans 8:26, 27 tells us that God’s Spirit is right there with us, making prayers out of our wordless sighing and groaning. Often, we feel that we don’t know how to pray or that we are so sinful that God can’t hear us. But He can. God says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, NKJV). Third, some prayers can be understood only by God when desperation and pain are seeping out of our hearts. When we have tried everything we know to try, when we have been obedient, and when we have followed all the steps that have been laid out in sermons, books, and articles, God may still seem silent.
Yet even then, He hears and understands our wordless prayers. These are the times when we just go to Him, acknowledging that He is with us.
We sit quietly, cry, and let our minds unwind, not worrying about forming the right words. God’s Spirit will do that for us. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3, NKJV). In our humility and sense of defeat, when we can’t talk to God or hear His answers, we can still expect His promised blessing.
Even when our faith is running dry, the Spirit will reach into our hearts and form our unspoken pain into heavenly language to present before our Father. Hannah, greatly desiring a child, prayed wordless prayers of pain and grief in the tabernacle. At first, the priest, Eli, did not understand her behavior.
When he did, he blessed her and told her God would grant her wish, and God did (1 Samuel 1:9–20)! These are promises to hold on to.
Elizabeth Versteegh Odiyar