Prayer Shouldn't Add Stress!

My friend is going through a hard time. You name it, she's probably dealing with it right now.

A few times I've started to pray for her and my words fall short. I mean, how do I begin when so many problems are calling for attention? Do I pray for surface issues or root causes? What if I don't even know the root causes?

Prayer shouldn't add stress! And yet, I can get all worked up over how to pray.

I'm so thankful God knows we don't even know how to pray. I'm glad He knows I'm an idiot when it comes to how everything should be done; my weak words can't compare to His infinite wisdom. Even through all of that, He works through our prayers. That's a whole other article, though.

"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 with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will" (Romans 8:26-27).

Why Does the Spirit Intercede for Us?

• It's His job.

This passage is right in the middle of a section that talks about two jobs of the Holy Spirit. The first one is to guarantee our future physical redemption. The second one, the one we're talking about here, is to intercede for us in prayer.

• We are weak on our own.

"The Spirit helps us in our weakness." The Spirit has to come along side us and partner with us in prayer because we lack the strength to do so without Him.

• We don't know how to pray.

"We do not know what we ought to pray for." We don't grasp God's holiness and sovereignty. We can't fathom His perfection and the intricacies of His law. Needless to say, then, we don't know how to pray in accordance with those things.

• He does know how to pray.

"The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." God searches our hearts, or in other words, He knows our intentions. God also knows the mind of the Spirit because they are One. He then knows how to make it all work together. He knows how to take our intentions that led us to prayer in the first place and make them fit with the perfect will of God.

What's my response?

I'm not going to stop praying for my friend, even though I'm weak and ignorant. I am going to rest in the fact that God knows my intentions in prayer and He has a sovereign, perfect plan for my friend. I'm going to rest in the fact that if He can bring the universe together out of nothing then He can bring my prayers, my friend's problems, and His plan all together in perfection.