"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." - Romans 8:26.
So, I'm helping my 14 year old son, Caden, study for a big World History test. In this particular study session, I'm asking him questions from a quiz that his teacher gave to help the class get ready for the big test. The quiz was pages and pages of stuff that Caden had written out. My job was to take each of Caden's written quiz answers and turn them into spoken questions for Caden to answer aloud.
About halfway through our study session, I got this thought to be silly.
So, with a huge smile, I said to Caden, "True!" And, of course, I thought he'd say, "Ah Dad, c'mon. Give me the rest of the question."
Instead, without missing a beat. Caden said, "True, Cromwell was open to the idea of religious toleration."
I about fell on the floor from amazement, not to mention gladness, because Caden really needs to do well on this test. And I said, "How did you know that from all these pages of stuff?" And he said, "I told you, Dad; I've been studying!"
Which is a great parable to today's Bible verse. Just like I barely gave Caden anything to work with when I said, "True," sometimes we barely give God anything to work with when we pray because "we do not know what to pray for." (Romans 8:26).
But even though I barely gave Caden anything to work with, he knew the answer because he'd taken time to study and know the material. So too, even though we barely give God anything to work with sometimes in our prayers, God knows the answer because he's taken time to study and know us.
So be encouraged, y'all!!! Yes, it's good to have nice, eloquent, smooth-flowing prayers. But when things come up that baffle you, as they do everyday, and a nice, eloquent, smooth-flowing prayer is nowhere to be found in your heart, then just groan or grunt or squeal out whatever you can to God.
God already knows the rest.
And he's on it.
Because He loves you.
We know this in Jesus Christ.
So go into today, and know that your grunting, groaning, squealing, sighing, mumbling, bumbling prayers are heard. And they're blessed!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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