Mark
4:34 “When they were alone, He
explained all things to His disciples.”
Romans 8:26 “Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our
weaknesses; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself
intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
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“Prayer can
be a weakness,” people say. I have learned that prayer is the blessing of
people I know with my intention of asking God’s intervention in their lives.
Prayer is God’s blessing of people through us. God sanctifies us through prayer.
Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer is God’s answer to our poverty, not a power we
exercise to receive an answer.”
What
did Paul say about prayer and our relationship with God in Romans 8? He said,
“But also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our
adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our body…The Spirit Himself
intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (vs. 23 & 26 [NASB])
Am
I struggling with prayer, with my prayer life? Are you? Have you given
that weakness over to God for Him to remake you? Are you groaning as Paul wrote
in Romans? Did you answer maybe? Perhaps you prayed but not to receive the
Holy Spirit. You complain/groan because you would
rather not have to work on this.
Sometimes
prayer appears to be a futile act. Our teachers of the past taught us prayer is
necessary. Many people accept that. Others, however, still do not trust enough
to accept that we pray with the “groanings”
of the Holy Spirit, the fervent prayer of a righteous heart. James said in James 5:16b, “The
effective (fervent) prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
“Fervent”
is the key, so is the "righteous heart”. Have you considered that sometimes our
hearts are not righteous? Our hearts contain flaws due to selfishness, self-centeredness,
and willfulness. Added to this, we are not fervent until extreme situations
arise.
Are
we diligent? Are we faithful in our prayers? Do we believe in God? Do we trust that God wants to be in a
relationship with us? Why are we so apathetic in prayer? Do we not trust God will
listen and answer our prayers? Perchance, we do not realize God wants to hear prayer
our prayers. From this, we reason there are no answers to prayer. Many people
say, "No, I understand God answers prayer."
Are
our prayers more like begging or wishing for us? We realize God will do what He
wants to do in His own time. He is omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing).
Does our wishing make Him do what we want?
We
cannot control God, so how can we imagine talking to Him through prayer will persuade
Him to do something about what we are praying? That is the heart of the matter. We
see prayer as hoping and wishing that God will intervene, but we are unsure
that He will. Perhaps that is why we are feeble in prayer. We come to God
with our heart’s desires and hope He will answer or act, especially the
way we want. Yet does He act because of our talking to Him or because He
is omniscient God? Does what we wish for cause Him to act? Our wants and
desires do not cause Him to act.
Continuing
in this line of thought, if when we ask Him to intervene, knowing we cannot
control God, how do we imagine this helps? Is God swayed by our fervency of prayer?
Does God do things because we ask or because He knows what is right?
Is praying just wishing? If prayer
is wishing, why do we even need to pray? God will do what He will do. This
sounds hopeless and is contrary to James 5:16. We trust the Bible is true, so
we should trust in the above verse written by James. Paul said in Romans 8:26,
“The Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and He who
searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes
for the saints according to the will of God.” The mind of the Spirit living
within each believer intercedes for him or her to the LORD about the truth,
sincerity, and depth of the person’s heart cries to God through prayer. He knows the deepest needs of the heart
when we live in a vibrant relationship with Him. When the Spirit lives in a
person, He knows the depths of the person. Those depths of the heart are the “groanings”
of utter-ness, the “groaning” too deep for words, to God. The words “too deep”
in Romans 8:26 come from the Greek word alaletos.
This word means “not to be uttered or expressed in words.” The thoughts in the
deepness in one’s heart are inexpressible. The Spirit expresses these to
God.
Our
daily prayer should be, “Lord, help us to believe that You intervene in the
world (which we know and believe) and You do it because of our heart’s groaning
in “utter-ness” to You.” Teachers teach us that when we pray with that “utter-ness,” that deepness that is too
deep for human words, we are faithfully praying as the Holy Spirit leads and what
the Spirit desires for others and us. When we pray in this way because of our
close relationship with Jesus, who intercedes for us with our heavenly Father,
we are praying what the Lord God wants and His will shall be done.
Fervent
prayer is to get us to a closer relationship with God, not so we can get whatever we want
through our prayers to Him. We pray so that our hearts will become
more like His, that what we want is what He first wanted for us. Prayer becomes
the link of His thoughts and His will from Him to us, His children. Prayer is to get each of us to become more
like Him – His image. When we pray fervently with a righteous heart, He shares
more of His thoughts and will for our lives through His indwelling Holy Spirit.
We become more in tune with Him and grow in Him so we become one (He and us/me)
like the Father and the Son are one. Prayer is not weakness. When we pray for
others, we bless them with God’s blessing, His best care of and will for them.
Our praying for people is our intentional blessing of them with God’s presence,
guidance, and help. Praying is holy and is God’s answer to our poverty
(spiritual, mental, physical, and financial) and the poverty of other people.
Real prayer comes from the depth of one’s relationship with God.
That
is why we pray, not to get our wishes delivered to us,
but
to become one with God,
like His Son, Jesus – who became one
with the Father.
