Our Weakness and Prayer
There’s no exemption clause to suffering for Christians. We will face afflictions, will face pain, will face heartache, confusion, grief, hardships, tribulation.
But what happens when the suffering you’re experiencing feels like you’re drowning in a sea of anxiety and heartache and pain and uncertainty, and grief overwhelms your soul? You know you’re supposed to cry out to God, but you just can’t seem to get the words out. You just can’t seem to find the words to express what you’re feeling. Even the words you think you’re supposed to pray don’t feel like enough.
Romans 8 is a comfort to us in this tension. There Paul explains that the Spirit aids us in our praying to our Father when our groaning becomes too deep for words.
“…but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15) When we cry out to God in a childlike faith, that is the Spirit working in us. A sign of a genuinely changed heart is a desire to cry out to your heavenly Father.
And in Romans 8:27 Paul says, “[the Father] who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” This should bring comfort to all believers!
Saints, in our weakness the Spirit holds us up and takes our wordless groans to the Father and presents them as humble appeals to God’s will.
Does it comfort you to know that the Father doesn’t just say, “I know your heart don’t worry, I know what you really mean.”—as comforting as that may be.
But even more than that, by His Spirit, he enters into your pain, he enters into your heartache, he enters into your suffering, he enters into your affliction, he enters into your anxiety, he enters into your confusion and works with you to make known what your soul can’t verbalize.
He enters in and turns the groans birthed from your suffering into sweet supplications for His will to be done. What comfort it is to know that God doesn’t just stand on the sidelines cheering us on waiting for us to make it to the end, but instead he walks onto the track and helps us hobble to the finish line.
The Father delights in answering prayer requests that fall in line with His will. Every prayer the Spirit prays for you is a yes and amen from the Father. This doesn’t mean the Spirit somehow twists your words and you end up getting what you ask for, but it does mean you end up getting what you need.
The Spirit’s goal is to bring glory to God by exalting Christ in your life, namely your conformity to Christ. Meaning, though you don’t know exactly what the Spirit intercedes for, you can know that the request has one desired outcome—that you look more like Jesus as you persevere.
My exhortation to us this morning saints, acknowledge your weakness and keep praying.
Understanding the Spirit’s strength in your weakness should free you to acknowledge your weakness. We hide what we are ashamed of. There is nothing shameful about your weakness. Its no sign of spiritual immaturity. In fact, spiritual immaturity would be to believe you do not, or should not, have any weaknesses.
Church family, our Father knows your heart, the Spirit knows God’s will, so pray. Groaning may not be pleasant in the moment, but by the Spirit it’s pleasing before the Lord.