When my wife and I were going through a seven-year period of secondary infertility, we often found ourselves completely unable to understand what God was doing in our lives. Our prayers were seemingly going unanswered and we often wondered what God was trying to teach us. I sometimes found myself wondering if we were praying for the right answer.
You may have found yourself in a similar place in your prayer life. When a loved one has what looks like a terminal disease, do we pray for physical healing or eternal release? When a child is making destructive choices, do we pray for chastisement and correction or for protection? There are points of pain, places of suffering, and realms of wondering in which we just don’t have the words.
But God does.
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. - Romans 8:26 (NLT)
In our weaknesses… I’ve been there. Weak. Unable to run, walk, or even stand spiritually and emotionally. And when we’re at our weakest, God is still strong. The Holy Spirit is still an all-powerful God who has taken up residence inside us. And He hurts for us, waits with us, groans in us, and speaks on our behalf, communicating with the Father about things to deep for us to understand.
When you don’t know how to pray, God knows all about it, and the Spirit is talking to the Father while the Son intercedes as our High Priest. So don’t feel that you have it all together in prayer. Just pray, and as you do, trust that God has your back no matter what.
