Prayer - Part 4

I thought it was time to get back to the topic of prayer. Tonight's post is on Romans 8:26-27.

Romans 8:26-27 (NLT)
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
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²⁶ And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

When we need to pray the most, sometimes words fail us. The situation we are in may be so grave that we cannot find the words we need so that we can pray. We may be in shock and grief. But the Holy Spirit knows what we are trying to say and He will intercede for us with the Father, with words that are known only to Him. There are some that say that this verse is talking about speaking in tongues, but I disagree. The verse says that the Holy Spirit prays for us; if we were speaking in tongues, the verse would say that we would be praying in the Spirit. The "groanings that cannot be expressed in words" is the second statement that shows that it is the Holy Spirit that is praying and not us, because when you pray in tongues, there are actual words (even though you may not know what they mean) and not groanings.

²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

God searches our hearts to find out our true motives and feelings. He knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit is part of Him.

The Spirit "pleads our case" to the Father on our behalf (like a good attorney). The pleadings of the Spirit for us will line up with God's will for us.

That's all for tonight. Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Diane