P134_042425. Rom. 8:26-28 We Have Our Very Own Interpreter

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So Paul tells us that the Spirit helps us with our weaknesses. But what are these weaknesses? Well, we could list a whole number of those, couldn’t we? But he is very specific on what these weaknesses are in this verse. For he says… Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. Boy, is that interesting, isn’t it? What Paul is telling us then is that no matter how dedicated or experienced we Christians are, we really don’t know how to pray. We don’t know whether to pray for the healing of someone or to pray for grace in their suffering so that they may know him in a different way. We don’t know who to pray for, whether to pray for those we think are lost or those who we think might be saved. We don’t know whether to pray for the world. We don’t even know most of the world that we should pray for. It’s quite a statement for Paul to tell us that the Holy Spirit is helps us to pray in our weakness, in our weak prayers. So how do we take that in regard to what we are praying about? Lord God, I don’t know how to pray for my son or my daughter, my mother or father, my loved one who is stuck in this situation or addicted to this or that issue or the problem. But Father, I know that you come to me in my weakness. Your Holy Spirit comes to me in my weakness and prays through that weakness. Likewise, it says, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us, listen to this now, with groanings which cannot be uttered. So at times we’re praying, and we’re praying for our loved one, let’s say, and we just feel this heaviness of spirit. We just feel, in fact, so bewildered, so overwhelmed, so discouraged, so depressed by the condition of our loved one that we just almost want to stop praying. And yet what we need to do is to acknowledge before God, Lord, you can feel my heaviness, can’t you? You can feel the burden that I feel so strongly that I don’t know how to pray about this. But I thank you that the Holy Spirit interprets my weakness. He knows, he interprets my groanings, my heaviness of heart. He knows how to articulate those, to put them into words with you. And he says, Colin’s praying this way, Lord, in his groanings. Boy, isn’t that something? I mean, so often we go before God in prayer as if we just didn’t know what in the world we were doing, not knowing how to pray, what to pray, feeling those groanings. And yet what we need to do is to say no. These groanings, this heaviness of heart, is all part of my prayer life. And the Holy Spirit is taking those prayers, that heaviness, those groanings, and interpreting them before the Father. What a boon this is. If we could understand that. I mean, when I was a young guy, I used to get so discouraged by my prayer life because I would say, I need to pray more like Martin Luther, who got up at four in the morning and prayed, or some other person. And I would start to pray, and I would slowly lose enthusiasm after a minute or two. And in fact, I sometimes was so tired that I fell asleep on my knees. And I got so discouraged by that. But that’s not what we need to do. We don’t have to be that way. We don’t have to get discouraged, because the very burdens and the groanings are part of what the Holy Spirit is taking to the Father. Do you get it? You can be much more encouraged in your prayer life than you anticipate, than you think. And so then Paul says, now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Now, I don’t fully understand that, but I think it’s saying that God searches the hearts and he knows what the… what the mind of the Spirit is. He’s fully aware. All that God knows, the Spirit knows, and all that the Spirit knows, the Holy Spirit, the Father knows. And so when the Holy Spirit brings these things to the Father, the Father already knows about them. I don’t understand why it has to be like this. I’m just revealing or unveiling these words to you. He knows what the mind of the Spirit is. And so he makes intercession, intercession for the people of God. Now, this doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit has to convince the Father to love us or care for us, because remember what Romans 8 a little later says, what then shall we say to those things, to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us? So what Christ does and what the Holy Spirit does are not activities to convince the Father, for God the Father sent the Son, and God the Father sent the Holy Spirit. And so there is no issue here of convincing the Father. It simply needs to be understood that the Son and the Holy Spirit are working in tandem with the Father to bring salvation to the whole human race, to all men and women everywhere. Look, just imagine, I saw something horrible the other day online. I couldn’t look at it for long, but I prayed again for this little kid. Oh my goodness, some of the images that you see on YouTube of starving children. This little kid was bent over and hanging his head on his knees. His tiny arms, as thin as matchsticks, were wrapped around his legs. He looked as though he was totally forlorn and just waiting to die. I tell you, that little boy will know the Father in the kingdom, and he will know all the joy of feasting in the heavenly courts with the angels and with the Father and the Son. That little boy’s whole body and his mind were the groanings within that the Holy Spirit takes to the Father. And that little boy represents one out of… millions, hundreds of millions of hungry, starving people in the world. It is a tragedy that we dare not wrap our minds around for long, because it seems so much to contemplate. But what we know is that our Holy Spirit is groaning on behalf of the world, and taking the groanings of the world to the Father, interceding with the Father for them on their behalf. We cannot pray as we should. We don’t know how to pray as we should. We are simply perplexed and confused, but the Holy Spirit knows the meanings of our groanings and that little kid’s groanings and all the hungry people of the world. And he takes it to the Father. And the Father is not forgetful of these things. He is mindful of them. So I want to try to encourage you to include your indescribable feelings into your prayer life, to include your groanings in your prayer life, to include the heaviness that you feel. Don’t think, oh, I’m not praying properly. I shouldn’t be just feeling this heavy load and not speaking to my Father. Yes, you should. That’s part of the prayer. That’s part of God’s work in you. Oh, it’s just wonderful to hear this. And remember, This is all in the context of the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. You see, we are living in his resurrection, and so all that goes through our mind by faith, as we interpret it by faith, and as we receive it by faith, and take it to the Father in prayer by faith— is part of that resurrected life of Jesus Christ. And that’s why we can sit before him in meditation, loneliness, depression, sorrow, pain, the worry and anxiety of others, and we can be assured that the Holy Spirit is taking every one of those emotions, dissecting them, putting them into words, bringing them to the Father on your behalf. He’s our intercessor, not because the Father doesn’t know it all, but because we need to know that someone is interceding for us, because we just don’t have enough courage to believe it all. And that’s why the Holy Spirit is our assistant. Then notice, that the verse that is so familiar to Christians comes in. We know that all things work together for good. And it starts with and. And we know that all things work together for good. Now, this is very rarely said. read in its context. We just pluck that verse out of context and just state that we know that all things work together for good. But what is the context? Well, it’s the context of prayer, isn’t it? We know that everything we’re praying about is working together for good. We’ve been praying for months, perhaps, for years, maybe, about a certain issue, and we just get confused sometimes, but then we need to bring in this verse in its context. We know that all things, that is all the things and issues that bother us that we are praying about, work together for good to them that love God. And remember, it’s not the condition to them that love God. We love God because we have faith. Faith gives us love. Faith enables us to love our Father because we believe in Him finally. Without faith, we don’t believe in Him. We doubt Him all the time. We wonder whether He’s a crackpot. We wonder whether He’s a schizophrenic. We wonder whether He’s good at all, that He could leave the world in such a mess. No, we don’t believe that anymore. We have faith. and are convinced of the love of God. How are we convinced of the love of God? By the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the gift God the Father gave us of his Son to save us. We’re convinced of it, and therefore we love him. We love because he loved us. because he first loved us. And this is how we come before God absolutely convinced in our prayer life, in our groanings, in all the terrible things that go on in our lives that we just feel so burdened by in prayer. Lord God, these things are all working together for good as I bring myself before you, as I bring my heavy heart, as I bring my thoughts, my fears, my words to you. I bring them to you knowing the Spirit is interpreting them for me, bringing them to you so that I can’t understand what I’m feeling and what I ought to pray, but the Holy Spirit does, and therefore I have a perfect word in your presence. Now, this is listener-supported radio, that is, listeners pay for the program, and some people think that I work for KLTT. No, no, I pay KLTT for space time, for air time. So if you’d like to make a donation, please send it to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thank you so much for all your support. Thank you for your notes. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.