Beads of perspiration form on your brow, your heart flutters, and your mind races. An endless loop replays in your head: the scathing screaming argument with your mother; the prognosis from the doctor; a schedule so full you cant calm your thoughts enough to fall asleep at night.
You’ve probably been there at some point in your life. You rush before God like an eager child bursting into a room full of toys only to find that you have no idea where to begin to pray. You don’t know if you should be asking for guidance, protection, forgiveness, – OR all of the above. And what about the order of the list? Will God answer little prayers? One only – or multiple? Do you use big words, or pray for a lengthy amount of time? How does this prayer thing work?
We read in Mattew 6: when you pray do not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synogogues and on the street corners to be seen by others….Go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen. He sees what is done in secret and will reward you in secret….Do not bable like pagens, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Maybe you’ve finally got a minute to yourself, so you grab your bible, look up to the ceiling and think…Now what? That list you’ve been building in your mind goes blank. The phone rings. The TV blares from the other room. The dog barks. Anything… Everything interrupts the moment. HEEEELLLPP!! HOW do you pray when words fail???
(Enters the Holy Spirit)
He perceives our hearts agony and comforts us in our weakness. He knows our spiritual battle often burns hottest when we fight within ourselves. We wrestle with how to prioritize our prayers. We struggle with imposing our human agendas on a holy God. We cross our arms, grit our teeth and mentally stomp our feet when things don’t turn out how we desperately prayed they would. Life’s frustrations can mute us spiritually. ” We do not know what we ought to pray for” But… God does NOT stop hearing us when we’re dumbstruck before him. Both in silence and when our words flow in a jumbled torrent, the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf to the father. He DOES know what to pray for.
One of our projects where we’re staying is to build a wall More or less around the property. When it rains the water washes to the far back and floods the land. So we’re making a wall to prevent flooding. It requires 12 mack trucks FULL of dirt/rock. (we’re on our 3rd load) It takes us roughly 8 hours to finished shoveling, moving, and repiling it elsewhere. We use 4 wheelbarrows and rotate shoveling and hauling dirt. The other day we bought 2 wheelbarrows to donate to the project. A day later the screws and bolts were coming loose on the new wheelbarrows so a teammate of mine and myself walked them next door to the hardware store to get them fixed. As we were walking I quickly realized all the men working at the hardware store spoke fluent Spanish and little to no English… I started to panic…How in the world am I going to explain that I bought these yesterday, and now they are broken and getting worse…I hurridly prayed God would show up and make a way for us to exchange conversation and get our equiptment fixed.
As we were walking in, a middle aged gentleman was walking out, and spoke to us in English. I exclaimed… “YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? DO YOU SPEAK SPANISH ALSO?” He did! His name was Micheal (Miguel in CR) and he translated everything, and even sat down and helped the man fix BOTH wheelbarrows. We sat and watched and talked for about 30 minutes. Just getting to know him, and more about the area. I was praying while listening, asking God to be in our midst, protect us, and direct the conversation. Give me the words Lord, I would pray. Give me boldness. At the end of the conversation we shook hands, hugged and he started off to his car, and before I could say Adios, I said Sir can we pray for you??? Anything in particular? I had no idea what to pray for… He shared with us about his son Thomas and how he was worried about his protection in the bad environment he lives in over in San Jose. He was worried for his safety and even his life at times. He told us he personally was blessed and healthy and grateful. I began to pray over him and his son, and the Holy Spirit was Heavy in our midsts. He asked in turn if he could pray over us! He thanked God for allowing our paths to cross, he confessed to his sinful life, and was grateful for us in reminding him God is real and he is close by always. It truly was divine appointment, and although I had no idea what I was going to say during our visit to the hardware store the Holy Spirit surely intervened and spoke on my behalf.
Romans 8:26 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 through wordless groans.
I want to encourage you, the next time your spirit groans, or you feel at a loss for words, maybe you feel a weight heavier than you can bear…Trust that even when you might not be able to find words to pray, God clearly hears your cries through intervention of the Holy Spirit. He knows your heart, your thoughts, and your greatest needs, even before you speak them. Though your words may fail, your intercessor will NEVER fail you.
