EVER INTERCEDING

 

June 18, 2025



Romans 8:26–27

“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. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”




Have you ever sat down to pray and found no words? Perhaps the grief was too great, the confusion too deep, or maybe the exhaustion was too heavy. Maybe you stared at the ceiling or closed your eyes and sighed, feeling like a failure in prayer. Paul’s words in Romans 8 are a relief for that kind of moment.

Here is what we must realize, we are not alone in our silence. God is not saddened or let down by our inability to express our needs with clarity. In fact, what we read today is that it is in that very moment of weakness that the Holy Spirit does His most caring work, interceding with groans too deep for words. The Spirit doesn’t just assist us in prayer; the Spirit prays for us, prays for us in such a way that our inexpressible needs are in line with the will of the God our Father.

Paul uses the Greek word for helps (sunantilambanetai) to describe the Spirit’s role, it's a word that expresses the idea of someone coming alongside to lift a heavy burden with us, not for us. Notice the difference? And the “groanings” mentioned are  the Spirit’s deep, intimate communication with the Father, or as one commentator put it, "language deeper than language."

I wonder if we are to understand by this, that the next time we are overwhelmed, by grief, anxiety, fear, or simply life, we do not need to fret about what to say. Perhaps we just need to sit quietly. Let our tears, our sighs, even our silence become our prayer. Trusting that the Spirit is already interceding to God for us.

Let's Pray

Holy Spirit of God, I don’t always know how to pray. But You do. When I am weak, when I am silent, when I don’t know what to say, pray for me, intercede for me. Lift my heart to the Father in ways I cannot. Thank You for never leaving me on my own. Amen.