Talking about...
Saturday, May 3, 2014 by Unknown
Prayer is one of those subjects that everyone has an opinion on. How to pray...When to pray...why we pray...I'm sure you have issues with this part of your spiritual walk just as I do. Feeling as if we are not doing enough...Do I need to pray all day since Scripture says to pray without ceasing. What does my prayer really accomplish if we are to believe in a Sovereign Lord? These are all great questions and I am a sinner just like you in need of the Lord daily and so I pray. I look to HOW Jesus prayed to His Father. I look to HOW David prayed to his Lord. I seek to follow the examples the Bible gives us in prayer.
It is a subject we, Christians, hardly ever tackle together. Why? We may feel inadequate, not knowing the right answer. The good news is the Holy Spirit enables our prayers (even the ones we think are horrible). You know the ones I am talking about. The ones in which our minds wander during prayer and we start thinking about the laundry, work, the kids, or ourselves. Romans 8:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit prays with us, even for us, with groans that even words cannot express.
You know those prayers where you just don't know how to tell God even one more time how overwhelmed you are with your pain or the kids and you just stop. You stop because you feel you are not a good pray-er... I know that feeling. It's easier just not to do it. But God WANTS you to talk to Him. It's amazing that He loves us so much that He gave us the Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf. How good He is!
J.I. Packer explains it this way, "The Spirit fixes our prayers on the way up."
Consider the following example:
You have unconverted children. You pray for God to change their hearts. Do you also pray for God to give them hard times in which He will most likely work in them? I know, right? Probably not. More often we pray for God to keep them safe, out of trouble and doing the right things. But maybe God's plan for them is different.
Isn't it comforting to know God has given us the Holy Spirit to groan for us as we mangle up prayers to Him! It is not in our strength we even pray at all. In Jude we are told to pray in the Holy Spirit. What's so great is knowing we might not know the will of the Lord in our lives but the Spirit does!
So today...go to prayer with thankfulness and certainty, knowing the Spirit is with you praying for you and with you. What comfort in all our troubles!
