January 3 , 2001
Reading
“The Spirit Himself
makes intercession for us” (26)
Do you ever feel that your prayers are inadequate or that you find it difficult to ‘put into words’ what is in your heart? Your heart aches deeply and you wish you could express your burden to the Lord but the words are just not there.
I find our text a great comfort for it tells me that one of the benefits I have as a born again Christian is that the Holy Spirit intercedes on my behalf. I may not know how to express myself to my heavenly Father but He does. He speaks God’s language and translates my feeble babblings into “groanings” which cannot be “uttered” by me.
When Moses was confronted by the Children of Israel as the Egyptian army was bearing down on them we read that God said, “Why do you cry to Me? Exodus 14:15. There is no reference to Moses praying to God but the cry of his heart was taken by the Holy Spirit and presented to Him. The verses that follow this question from God contain His answer to the burden of Moses’ heart.
The Holy Spirit not only hears our
words but knows our thoughts and the intent of our heart (Hebrews
“Now Hannah spoke in her heart;
only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard” 1 Sam 1:13. Eli saw this and
accused her of being drunk. Her answer is beautiful, “I am a woman of sorrowful
spirit. .. but have poured
out my soul before the LORD” 1 Sam
A fact, of which the Holy Spirit is well aware, is that “we do not know what we should pray for as we ought”. A burden may bring tears to our eyes and the only words we can muster are “O Lord!” To the Holy Spirit that is a prayer for He knows the cause of those tears and that heart ache.
There are several wonderful realities presented in the next verse: the heavenly Father searches our heart and therefore knows our heartaches; the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and presents them to Him and we can be sure that every intercession by the Holy Spirit is according to “the will of God”. Not every heartache or prayer is according to the will of God, so the Holy Spirit acts as a ‘filter’ and presents to the Father only those things that are.
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” 1 John 5:14-15.
Is everything we pray for “according to His will”? Remember, we do not know how to pray as we ought”. I am sure we have all prayed for things that, at a later date, we realize were not His will. The Holy Spirit knows when our requests are in line with the will of God and presents them to Him accordingly.
The more we mature in the things of God the more we will be in tune with His plans and will pray accordingly. In the meantime we often include in our prayers, “if it is Your will”. Do we really want something if it is not according to His will? We have the confidence that the Holy Spirit will present to God only those things that are. Not knowing is no reason for failing to pray. He knows we do not know how to pray as we ought, but He does.