God Knows

Romans 8:26-27

“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. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

            Paul has finished talking about how to be saved and what happens to those who are saved to the benefit of those who are saved. He has already mentioned those who are saved have an inheritance as heirs of God, and after this he continued to speak about a future glory to which not only followers of Jesus but all of creation look forward. In this next passage, Paul shows how God is not only instrumental in the salvation of His followers but also in their continual growth. We cannot see the future glory that we long for in full focus. That is what makes it a struggle to see what needs to be prayed for. Paul shows in this passage how this is not an issue because the Spirit again comes into play and assists us in how we need to speak and what we need to speak to God. It is not about what the individual wants; it is about the will of God. It is interesting how Paul mentions that the groanings the Spirit intercedes with are too deep for words, showing this is going past any language barrier to the heart of the matter. There is no qualification in this passage either—no “if, then” statements. The Spirit does this for believers either way.

            What does this mean to us as Christians? It means that we do not always need to find the right thing to pray for, but we need to take the intentional step and perform the action of prayer. We are shown not just to be left to ourselves when we are trying to pray. We are met again by God to give and receive those prayers for His own glory. This is the through line being made throughout all of Romans 8 where Christians do not just become Christians by themselves, and when they become Christians, they continue to have access to God through God. This gives us great confidence that we are no longer under the same rules that applied to the Israelites when God told them through Isaiah “Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore” (Isa. 59:2). Instead, now we have constant access to have our prayers heard and understood by God because He washes us of our sins and revives us in Him, which was seen earlier in the chapter, and also because He continues to help us through the Holy Spirit to align our prayers with His will. My dear Christians, what a kind, loving King we have who fulfills every aspect of not only what is required for salvation but also what is required for prayers to always reach the throne in a pleasing way to our Sovereign. We must take refuge in this fact and know that God simply expects us to start the prayer just like He did when we first believed.

            Likewise, for those who are non-Christians, this is the easy path where the burden to carry is low, but it is also the correct path. God calls out to you to believe not with qualifiers or things that need to be done to get in a right relationship. He calls you to come and He will take care of the rest. He never expects Christians to struggle on their own even with their own prayers, think how much more is He excited to help those to first believe, to take that one step to say “I cannot do this on my own and I want to believe in you God. Take me as I am completely unable to reach you on my own and save me and make me what you want me to be.” This right here is all that needs to be said to start your journey with Christ today.