The Spirit's Prayer

It is often true that we do not know how to pray.  Maybe, how is the wrong word.  Perhaps, what is the more operative word.  There are things that trouble us so deeply that we are not only overwhelmed by our emotional response, but we find that no words seem to come forth which really speak to the sense of loss or grief that we are experiencing.  Most of us do not have to look back down the road too far to remember such a moment.  Those kind of moments have come to all of us and, unfortunately, will come again.    

We should not be surprised at our inability to pray.  God has a plan for those moments.  It is a good plan.  The Apostle Paul spoke of it in his letter to the Roman Christians,  "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." (Romans 8:26)  Being comfortable with those kind of moments is not always easy for us.  We tend to be the kind of well meaning saints who simply plow ahead even though we are not sure about the will of God in a particular situation which is, after all, the direction our praying should take us.   

Another Biblical writer has an important word to say which has some application in those uncertain moments.  He wrote, "For everything  there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:...a time to keep silence, and a time to speak..."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7)  Listening is something most of us do not do very well.  It might be a good idea the next time we feel like we are in some hole where the words are only echoing around us without any sense they are rising toward heaven.  Maybe those are moments for listening.  Listening might enable us to hear a Word which comes from the Spirit and which we know as something that resonates with the very thing we are struggling to articulate.  Who knows?  The Spirit may even be praying it better!