Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness: Praying in the Spirit as the Spirit prays in us

Romans 8:26-27 ESV

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Prayer is one of the most powerful tools God gives to change.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 calls us to continually pray. APTAT finds its foundation in prayer. It is a model imbued with prayer. We know the importance of prayer. We don't struggle with comprehension, but execution. Two things the modern church struggles with: prayer and evangelism. Any discussion of these brings feelings of guilt.

We may feel strange or confused about what to pray about. But we have a helper, the Holy Spirit. He helps us to pray. He prays for us. The spirit strengthens us. We are weak in prayer because we don't know what to pray for. There are many obvious things to pray for. So what is Paul talking about? We are in a broken world, we are not saved from it. God saves us through the brokenness. In the difficult times, the painful times, or horrible times... We don't know what God is doing. We don't know why. So we don't know what to ask for, we are in confusion. That is what Paul meant. We don't know what God wants.

The Holy Spirit prays for us. He prays in the will of God. And all prayers in the will of God are always answered. So even when we are confused, be reassured, the Holy spirit intercedes for us. God continues His work in us, even when we don't pray rightly.

"with groaning too deep for words" has many different interpretations. I think this refers to our groaning in a broken world that waits for redemption. But the Holy Spirit also groans. The deepest longing of the Spirit is for the glory and return of Christ. Not only that, but our groans over our sin and brokenness also originate from the Spirit.

We start out not knowing how to pray. The Holy spirit prays for us. We pray unknowing and uninformed. Then as we learn to pray, the Holy spirit starts to pray through us as well as with us.

Application

Be mindful of the Spirit as you pray

Even when you have a list of prayer items, ask the Holy spirit to lead and teach us to pray. We can get convicted to ask for forgiveness. We can get convicted of sin.

Allow God's general will to shape your prayer life

Pray according to what God wants, generally. God's kingdom come, the growth of the kingdom both in our hearts, lives, and the world. "Hallowed be your name" "your will be done"

The Spirit points us to the gospel

We are weak, He is strong. We were sinners unable to do anything, so the Son had to come save us. Prayer is the language of weakness and dependency. So as we grow, we learn how weak we are.