God Gives Us What to Pray For
He leads me …
Romans 8:26-28 (TLB)
And in the same way—by our faith—the Holy Spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don’t even know what we should pray for nor how to pray as we should, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.
When we first become Christians, our prayer times can be really hard. We commit our time to the Lord and then read a section of the Bible. We may have a commentary that helps us understand what we have been reading, and sometimes we may have a daily devotion that we also read.
Then we will pray – usually we give thanks for the good things that Lord has been doing in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. Then we will pray for our family and the people we know who have needs – including those who we know need to be born again.
We may then pray for things that are on our heart, like our church leaders, or the people running the country. It might be missionaries or organisations that we support.
You know how it goes.
This becomes a routine and if we do not be careful it will become dry, and we do it because we know that it what we are supposed to do.
But it does not have to stay this way.
We can pray about all sorts of things.
We might see some clouds where the shapes capture our imagination. So we say something like, ‘Wow Lord. The depth and form in those clouds are amazing, and in a few minutes it will be replaced by something else just as good.’
We might see someone walking along the street who looks tired and worn out, and our reaction is, ‘Lord, look at that man. He appears to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Please be with him and show him Your love so that he can be encouraged.’
We then find that we are including the Lord in many aspects of our day, as we pray about all kinds of things that affect us.
Then as we do this more regularly, we discover that a word, a thought or a scene will come to mind in a moment of quietness. This is the Lord giving us something to think and pray about.
Usually we will respond the way we feel at the time, but sometimes we do not know how to pray.
Why does God do drop thoughts into our minds? As Wil Pounds of Abide in Christ (abideinchrist.com) says –
God answers prayer. He wants us involved in His eternal purpose. As a loving Father He wants us to come to Him and ask in faith. The Spirit–filled Christian is a praying Christian who walks by faith trusting his heavenly Father to provide daily.
It is all about or relationship with Him.
And if we are not sure what to pray, God gives wisdom to anyone who asks Him.
"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind" (James 1:5–6 NASB).
Let’s face it, we are not always good judges of what we should be praying for. We may ask for the wrong things or we might pray for things that actually do not help us in our walk with the Lord.
Again, as Wil Pound says,
The great thing is that when we do not know how to pray or what to do, the Holy Spirit comes to our aid. He doesn't take the entire load. We still have our personal responsibility. However, He helps us in working out the problems and overcoming the difficulties.
The Holy Spirit can bring that word, thought or scene to our minds as we pray to help us in what we bring before the Lord. Sometimes though words are simply not enough. We have probably had times when the situation has been too heavy or complicated that we have just sighed deeply, and said, ‘Oh Lord, what can I say?
Sometimes the sigh or groan is not audible.
Wil Pound says about this –
God receives these groans as acceptable prayers since they come from a soul full of, or under the control of the Spirit of God. God knows what is the mind of the Spirit. He understands the intent of our unutterable prayers. He knows the mind of the Holy Spirit who is always praying for us according to God's plan for our lives
It is God's way of meeting the cry of the Spirit within to lead us into a deeper and a more wonderful experience of God's grace, and God's glory, and God's person. It is not [just in] some things that happen to us, but everything that happens to us, whatever it may be!
The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We have someone praying for us all the time. Christ searches (Rev. 1:23) and the Holy Spirit searches (1 Cor. 2:10). Christ prays for us in heaven (8:34; Hebrews 7:25–26; 9:24; 1 John 2:1), and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us here on the earth. What a caring God we serve! [1]
[1] With help from http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/rom8v26.html
