Today’s reflection comes from Paul Martin. Thank you, Paul.
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Romans 8:26-28
Aren’t these comforting verses? If you’re feeling weak this morning just grab hold of the first sentence: the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness!
The example Paul gives us in this letter is also very encouraging. I’m reassured when I think that Paul also didn’t know what to pray for sometimes. It’s not obvious, is it? If you’re praying for someone you love right now, you know what you want for them but how do you know what’s really best for them? Lots of my prayers peter out because I can’t put them into words.
In his reflection last week, Peter mentioned the challenge of praying out loud. Many of us know what it’s like to be tongue-tied in a prayer meeting because we just don’t have the words. It doesn’t help, does it, when other people seem to find the “right words” so easily and can pray wonderfully eloquent prayers?
Let me say, there is no such as the “right words” and God does not listen to eloquent people more than the tongue-tied.
I heard Archbishop Sentamu preach last week at the end of Spring Harvest. One of his illustrations got me thinking (and I’m still thinking about it!). He told of a three-year-old who had just learned the alphabet. That night when they knelt to say their prayers, they began “Dear God” and then proceeded to recite all the letters from A to Z. To end the prayer they said, “Can you make that into a prayer, please? Thank you. Amen.”
I know Jesus told us we must become like little children if we wanted to enter the kingdom of God, but is that the kind of thing he meant?!
Adult prayers, if we’re honest, are often akin to shopping lists or a one-sided conversation that tends to go round in circles, over and over the same worries. Can the Holy Spirit turn these prayers into requests that align with the Father’s will? I believe it all depends on our attitude when we pray them. If we come submitting our wills to his will (even when we don’t know what his will is), then, yes, “the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.” If, however, we come demanding that the Father should do what we ask, we are not coming in weakness but confident in our own wisdom. Such prayers come from the old me not the from the Spirit-born “new creation”.
As we pray this week, let’s adopt the attitude of little children and, if you find it helpful, end your few words (or many!) with “Can you make that into a prayer, please?”