Pray anyway

August 26, 2005
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. -- Romans 8:26

How many times am I stopped in my tracks because I think I need to “know how to pray”. I know the burden that I have in my heart for things in my own life as well as in the lives of others, and sometimes I know I need to pray for something… but just don’t know how to begin expressing it.

This isn’t some huge new revelation… just something I think I need to be reminded of… OFTEN. We pray… we don’t have a clue what to even pray for, I mean… really… we don’t. But when we do it ANYWAYS, He mixes our human attempts with His amazing “Godness” and brings it all to the throne room before our Father.
A prayer for a friend for peace while her mother, or child was in the hospital, would now look like peace + whatever the Spirit knew REALLY needed to happen. All those heartbreaking details, the secrets of the heart, the past, the not yet to come, the things that would explode our hearts if we really knew the weight and measure of it all, He’s got our prayers covered, in a way only He can. Oh, and He DOES know the details. Isn’t that comforting to meditate on?
Something else that let me see into His heart even more this morning was God’s reaction to Israel after they had worshipped idols and forsaken Him AGAIN.
At first He told them to go seek their idols for deliverance. OUCH!!!! Well, instead, they cried out to Him again, and asked Him to do whatever seemed best… only please deliver them. I am guessing that prayer was BIG TIME “fixed up” by the groanings of the Spirit! Look at our precious Father's amazing response…

And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. Judges 10:16

Have you had seasons of your life where you live your own way, not really taking things to God, lifting up problems, people, or blessings higher than Him, prioritizing your time in a way that shuts Him out of the equation? Have you gone down a road of complete rebellion at times, knowing full well that what you were doing was completely deliberately against what you knew God was speaking to you? Have you ignored what you knew full well was right and just kept making up whatever excuse… perhaps blaming God for why you are choosing against Him for a season? Do you feel like He is going to turn you away if you try to cry out to Him again??? Well stop listening to THAT lie…OK??? Let’s just stop listening to it.
Not only is the Spirit there to intercede for us as we pray our pathetic prayers for deliverance, or of repentence… don’t they FEEL pathetic??? (I know they aren’t to God… but let’s get real here.) He is there to join with our.. “Oh, God… I am so burdened right now with all my stuff.. I don’t even know how I got here, or where to begin" prayers, and the Spirit takes it to the throne room and then PRAYS for the REAL issues at hand that we didn’t even know exist, or WOULD exist in the future.
He takes it to our Dad who is grieved beyond measure by the pain, suffering, problems, trials and troubles of His kids. His holy, perfect, completely faithful and just soul is pained beyond measure at our misery, no matter how heavy, what the cause, and no matter if we realize how miserable we are… or not…. That amazing heart is drawing me in.