Romans 8:26,27 In the name of him who sent the Spirit of life into our hearts, dear fellow recipients of God’s grace,
With all the advances in technology over the last few years comes the need for people who can bail us out when our technological devices don’t work as they should. These people come with the rather generic label of “tech support.” They are the men and women you call and get hooked up to for help when your computer or cable TV or iPod suddenly stops working the way it should. Who hasn’t experienced one of these phone calls? You feel rather humble as you try to explain just what happened, even though in reality you really don’t know what happened. But then you hear the tech on the other line surprise you by saying, “OK, I think I know what happened. We should be able to fix that rather quickly.” All of a sudden you let out a sigh of relief. Your troubles are gone – all because you were hooked up to someone who understood your problem and was willing to lend a helping hand.
We also have some “tech support” when it comes to our spiritual struggles, someone with whom we can get “hooked up” to who listens to our problems and sorts through our inadequate and frustrated attempts to explain what’s wrong. In the words before us this morning from the apostle Paul, we have a fascinating section of Scripture that gives us comfort and reassurance in times of trouble – especially as we live out our years on this earth with our eyes fixed on our heavenly destination. This morning let’s discuss our prayer life while learning that as Christians we all are assisted by God the Holy Spirit:
“A Helping Hand from Our Heavenly Hook-Up”
Today’s Scripture is a continuation from our readings in Romans. Last week Paul told us how we are in a time of waiting, a time in which we suffer along with the creation surrounding us, but still we’re able to do so patiently because of the hope we have – the hope of our redemption to life everlasting. “In the same way” that this hope helps us be patient, Paul goes on to tell us there’s even more help out there for us (v 26), “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” And what is that “weakness”? “We do not know what we ought to pray for” (v 26). Let’s take a look back even further. So often our weakness may be that we don’t pray enough! How often do you pray? Inventory your prayer life for one day (no fair using Sunday!). Hopefully there are the mealtime prayers, even though they may often be said in a robotic, rhythmic chant without a lot of thought put into them. Bedtime prayers? One in the morning when you get up? Any times during the day when you take time to talk to God? Now put an imaginary stopwatch on those prayers and estimate how much time you spend. Anyone out there spend more than 15-20 minutes, tops, in prayer each day? When it comes to prayer, weakness #1 may simply be that we don’t do it enough.
And that’s sad. Jesus told us to pray and even taught us how with the Lord’s Prayer. In Proverbs we’re told that “the prayer of the upright pleases [the LORD]” (15:8). But we still don’t make use of this privilege enough. Sad to say, from my confirmation classes I’m learning that we’re not doing a very good job of teaching our kids how to pray – and it might be because we’re forgetting how to pray ourselves. Perhaps it’s because we let doubt creep in, making us wonder if God even listens or has time to listen to us. Maybe we let guilt get in the way, thinking that we don’t deserve to bring our requests to God. We’ve forgotten that Christ won that privilege for us. Or maybe we’re afraid that we can’t put together a “proper” prayer, that we can’t come up with the right words, that we just can’t pinpoint what’s bothering us, and that it’s useless for us to even try. No wonder our prayers are often found lacking!
At times we all fall victim to what could be called the “Charlie Brown syndrome.” Remember the old Peanuts comic strip? It often featured “good ol’ Charlie Brown” being frustrated once again – either by throwing another home run pitch, getting his kite caught in the tree, or having Lucy pull the football out from under him yet again. The next strip would show him with his head tilted back, mouth opened wide, shouting out a single word: “AARRGGHH!” We don’t know what that word means – but, then again, maybe we do. It’s the same word – the same feeling – that we frustrated, disappointed, disillusioned, weak Christians have when we don’t know how to express what’s bothering us. It’s a constant reminder to us of how much our prayer life is lacking.
That’s why we need help. That’s where the Spirit comes in, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.” We’re not left by ourselves to figure out how to fix things. God the Holy Spirit is there. He “helps” us. It’s an interesting Greek word that we translate “helps.” It’s a long word that actually breaks down to mean to “stand on the other side of a problem and lay hold of it along with us.” To simplify it we might say that the Holy Spirit is the one who “lends a helping hand” to us when it comes to our prayer life. When “hooked up” to him, we find the help we need.
And what is that help? “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (v 26). In other words, he translates our “AARRGGHH’s” and makes them make sense. He gets behind the meaning of what we’re trying to say, sorts out our confusion, and presents our requests to God the Father. Isn’t that amazing? The inner feelings that we can’t put into words are straightened out by the Holy Spirit, whose power goes beyond the limits of human speech. While our burdens here on earth can only leave us groaning and sighing, the Holy Spirit picks up our burdens and carries them to the throne of grace – in the same way that our Savior Jesus carried our burden of sin to the cross for us and took it all away. In distressing situations when we feel that we don’t have a clue what to pray and may not even be sure what God’s Word would tell us to pray, the Spirit steps in for us. He sees our tears, hears our stress-filled sighs, and rushes to our side. He lends a helping hand as our heavenly hook-up when our prayers are found lacking, speaking the feelings and thoughts which we are not able to put into words.
And he does even more! The Holy Spirit helps keep our prayer-life focused. He’s there for us with a helping hand when our prayers are lacking, but he’s also there when our prayers need direction.
All too often we’re guilty of treating God like some kind of divine pizza delivery boy. We call him up, tell him exactly how we want our order, and then expect him to deliver our “pizza” exactly how we ordered it in 30 minutes or less. When we don’t get what we want, we’re quick to get back on the phone with God and say, “Hey, where’s my pizza?” Or, “how come it’s not exactly what I ordered?” Left unchecked, our frustrations may build and ultimately cause us to stop “phoning in” our orders altogether. Then our connection – and our faith – is lost.
The problem isn’t on God’s end. The problem lies with our misdirected prayers. Not that we’re praying to the wrong person – God invites us, even commands us, to pray to him and guarantees he’ll hear us. The problem is we’re often praying for the wrong things – we’re ordering from the wrong menu. We have our shopping list in front of us, but God has a much better list he wants us to use. Our will doesn’t naturally correspond with God’s will, so we find ourselves focused in on too many earthly things, too many worldly concerns, too many temporal problems. We get too hung up with this life that we overlook the life that is to come. Again, your own personal inventory of the content of your prayers will betray you as much as I’m betrayed by mine. We may think we know what to pray for, but then we realize our prayers are selfish and short-sighted. We realize they need direction!
Once again, heaven hooks us up with a helping hand (v 27), “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit . . .” The one who searches our hearts is God the Father. He “knows the mind of the Spirit.” God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are on the same page – after all, they’re part of the same Trinity. As such we’re told (v 27), “. . . the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” First of all, notice the precious title we’re given here – “saints.” Just another perk of being connected to Jesus Christ, the one who washed us clean in his blood and gave us our saintly status. As such, we are now assured of the fact that as the Spirit intercedes for us, he does so “in accordance with God’s will.” Literally, the Greek says “according to God.” Here’s what this means: The more the Holy Spirit works in your heart, the more pleasing to God your prayers will become. The more prominent a place the Holy Spirit has in your heart, the more your prayers will be found to be “in accordance with God’s will.” The more your life is guided by the Holy Spirit, the more clearly you will see and understand how God is working in your life – and the more trusting you will be when you can’t understand everything that he’s doing. Only the Holy Spirit can give our prayers the direction that they require. Only he can help us in our weakness.
It makes sense, then, for us to take advantage of every opportunity we have to be more “Spirit-filled.” The Spirit comes to us by working and then strengthening faith in our hearts. And Scripture tells us how we get that faith (Ro 10:17), “Faith comes from hearing the message.” Let’s line up the dominoes: Position yourself around the Word of God with regular church attendance, Bible Class, Sunday School, and your own personal devotional life at home. Then watch the Holy Spirit work his wonders in your heart as he waters that faith and causes it to grow. Finally, your prayer life will bloom and become more and more in step with God and his will, reaping many blessings to comfort and guide you in this life and giving you a sure and lasting hope for the life that is to come.
We really have no excuses left when it comes to prayer. Even if we feel we’re not “good” at it, we have a helping hand offered from heaven by the Holy Spirit. He fills in the gaps when our prayers are lacking, and he straightens them out when they’re misdirected. So, Christians, get on your knees and pray! And remember the words we sang earlier this morning (CW 189:4):
For he can plead for me with sighings
That are not speakable by lips defiled.
He bids me pray with earnest cryings,
Bears witness that I am your precious child,
Joint heir with Christ, and thus may dare to say:
O heav’nly Father, hear me when I pray!
Amen
– Rev. Jonathan Rockhoff