When You Don't Know How to Pray

In between this old body of flesh and that coming glorified body of confirmed holiness. In between the struggle now to advance the cause of Christ and that day when the cause of Christ will be ultimately seen in all its wonder as the glory of God fills the earth. In between here and there, there is one who will help us fight the fight now. One who will help us run the race now.

One who will help us bear the cross now. Have you ever tried to pray, but the words just couldn't come out? Maybe your mind was racing in all kinds of directions and you couldn't focus on Christ.

Perhaps you were facing a significant trial and you were unable to articulate your feelings. You just didn't know what to say to God. Well, did you know that during that time, the Holy Spirit was actually praying for you? As incredible as that sounds, Stephen's going to show you that from God's Word today. This is wisdom for the heart. Today, Stephen has a message for you entitled, When You Don't Know How to Pray.

Today, we're going to conclude our series on the subject of groaning, which we've entitled from Groaning in the Glory. In this study, we have been reminded and perhaps learned for the first time that nature is groaning for release from its bondage, its enslavement to corruption, that law of entropy that began at the fall and all the things that went with this creation that brought it downward and continues to spiral it downward is still under God's control. And we, in fact, reminded ourselves that mankind is the steward of nature, but he is not the savior of nature. God is in total control. In fact, we know from the book, you read the end of the book and you discover that planet Earth is headed for destruction, a bathing of universal fire, which God will use to obliterate that which remains in judgment.

Peter writes about it. The world, he says, was first destroyed, you remember, by that universal flood. And Noah preached and people ridiculed and missed the message. He is a gloom and doom prophet.

He doesn't know what he's talking about. It wasn't just gloom and doom. It was the gospel. Get into the boat, get into the ark.

And though he preached for over 100 years, nobody listened and nobody did it except his own family. And Peter goes on to say, but the present heavens and earth that is that which we are enjoying today, the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire for the day of judgment. This isn't just gloom and doom. This is the plan of God. And so the message of the gospel remains to get into the ark who is Christ Jesus.

And nature is groaning for that to come, for that to happen when Eden is restored. But I am convinced, as the word tells us, the world is blinded by the God of this world. If you could grab everybody by the lapels today and deliver to them the gospel, the vast majority would mock you, would be offended by you, would ridicule you, would say your gloom and doom. The cross is a stumbling block. The gospel is foolishness to them who do not believe, the Bible says. To speak of coming danger is nothing less than an irritation to the unbelieving world.

Let me illustrate it with another setting. I read some time ago about a 1984 plane crash, a jet, an Avianca jet, which is based out of Spain. It's a European airline. It literally flew directly into the side of a mountain in that nighttime flight. Investigators began to search the wreckage for that little black box, you know, that recorded what happened in the cockpit and other things. And they found it. And the recording of the cockpit revealed that several minutes before the fatal impact you could hear on the recording, this faint computer synthesized voice in English saying pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up, just repeating over and over again the warning.

This was the warning. Pull up, pull up until finally inexplicably the pilot said out loud, shut up, gringo, shut up. And he flipped a switch and he muted the sound.

And moments later the plane flew headlong into the side of the mountain and everyone was instantly killed. The world that does not believe in effect is saying to God through creation it sees, shut up, be quiet. It says to its own conscience, be still. It says to the delivery of the gospel, shut up, be still, be quiet.

Yet it doesn't change the fact. All of nature is groaning for that day of redemption. We learned as well the believer is groaning for the day of glorification. Following these end times when the earth is obliterated as it were with fire and God remakes a new heaven and new earth, we long for that day when the bodies of our flesh are done away. We are given glorified bodies at that final day when Christ comes to establish on new earth his kingdom.

We long for that day. We groan for that day. Now, if all Paul had informed us of in this chapter was that we are groaning and nature is groaning, that would be depressing. If all he said was that creation groans and the Christian groans and that's the end of the story, it would leave us empty, wouldn't it?

But that's not the end of the story. In fact, we're about to discover that God himself joins us in groaning too. And if you can believe it, he is about to tell us that the Holy Spirit is involved in groaning on our behalf.

So let's go back to the word Romans chapter 8 and pick it up where we left off with verse 26 and see what Paul writes and reveals further. And in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. The groaning of the Spirit is interceding on our behalf and he's about to reveal the startling truth to us. But first, before he does that, he is again, refreshingly honest, brutally honest.

He is transparent about the believer. He says that we, in the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness. We are weak. That doesn't sound very positive.

That doesn't sound very encouraging. It is if we believe it because of what it leads us to. But he says, as he begins, we are weak. Every measure of strength, every victory we experience is not of our own power. It is the power of the Holy Spirit. As Paul later would write, I can do all things through whom? Through Christ who what?

Strengthens me. Not by learning some secret to the Christian life, not by taking some supposed steps to spiritual freedom, not by becoming a biblical scholar, not by learning the Semitic languages and all of those things might be wonderful things, but we do all things through the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus said to his disciples something he didn't want them to forget and he doesn't want us to forget it.

John 15 five, without me, you can do nothing, not even one thing for the glory of God. Even though we are saved, we have imperfect perspectives. We have finite minds. We have human frailties. We have mental shortcomings. We have emotional inconsistencies and imbalances. That's how strong we are.

And just how spiritually needy are we? Just how weak are we? Paul informed us.

I read it. Let's go back again. He tells us that we do not even know how to pray. That's how weak we are. You don't even know how to pray as you should. Why not? Well, let me give you some reasons I think why. I think first of all, it's because we as believers tend to miss what God is going to do in the near and distant future.

We miss it. We try to project what God is going to do like men try to project the weather, men and women, right? I wouldn't want their job. Our projections, our prognostications are frail and weak and prone to be in error, right? We have no idea what the future holds. We don't know what God intends. Secondly, we don't know how to pray because we not only miss what is going to happen, we tend to misunderstand what is happening. So in the middle of whatever you're going through the middle of that suffering or that pain or that challenge or that victory or whatever, you mistake what God is trying to accomplish in your life.

You misunderstand the hand of God in your own personal life and the events of your life. And I happen to be so encouraged by the apostle Paul in knowing that that great saint of God prayed for the wrong thing too. Have you ever prayed for something that God didn't give you and then you learn later you weren't supposed to have it? Did you ever not even pray for something that was good and God gave it to you and you thought, you know, I didn't even ask him about that. Well, here's Paul praying three times in a misguided prayer, Lord, take away from me this what?

What's it called? A thorn. And I'm so glad he didn't tell us what his thorn was because all of us can now apply that to our own lives, right? Take away the thorn from my life three times in agony and with great passion, the great saint prayed, Lord, I'm assuming it must be your will.

So I'm asking that you take it away. And God eventually came and gave him an answer that he recorded that says, in effect, I'm going to leave the thorn with you, but I'm going to deposit to you great grace so you can handle it. And Paul writes his testimony. He says, the Lord gave to me, in effect, this truth. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your what?

Your weakness. Same Greek word used here in Romans chapter eight. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not even know what to pray. How did Paul learn that?

He learned it through his own experience. We're in need of help and prayer, not only because we miss what God is going to do and misunderstand what God is doing, but we mistake what we truly need. You ask the average person on the street out there, what do you need? And I give you an answer. You ask a person in the church, what do you need?

And unfortunately, the answers sometimes are the same thing. We want more things. What we need is better health or more possessions or a better service or less taxes or we need more money.

I was reading the newspaper. It tells the story about how people are being given what most people would say they need more money. A very tragic context, of course, related to 9-11 and the federal gifts that are being given to families of victims.

The average allotment per family is right around $1.5 million. And you would think that this would tie them together, right? You would think that this would pull them together, right? And yet the story is abound now of how it is tearing families apart. The cases in court are unbelievable. A couple of stories here where women are arriving from other parts of the world, Trinidad, Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil, coming here to make a claim on this $1.5 million. And the families didn't even know they existed.

The families didn't even know that they had any kind of claim to this amount of money. One story here about one man who'd moved to New York from Trinidad. He had married and had three daughters. And after the attack, a woman arrived to make a claim on his body and the money claiming to be his wife. She was able to prove that she had never been divorced from this man, thus making his marriage to this American woman illegal. Now she's claiming this money to be hers. Can you imagine what that is doing to that family? Another woman is battling in court against a Bolivian woman who claimed to be his wife. They are battling over DNA to be taken from the deceased man's razor to prove the paternity of children they both say he fathered, one in one country, one in this country. And they're arguing in court as to whether or not they can remove some remains from his razor to test the paternity.

Who really fathered these kids? What do you need? I imagine if you asked any of them before, they would have said more money. If you asked many of us, if not all of us, well, we could always use a little more, a little more security, a little better job, a little more power, popularity, whatever. We don't really know how to pray because we really don't know what we need.

I thought it was funny. I came across this week a story by one man who thought he needed something. This man's name is Timothy DeMuchel, I think is how you pronounce it. He's suing Charter Cable. This is his Wisconsin cable company. He's suing them because he says, quote, the company has turned my family into lazy channel surfers against our will.

The guy is serious here. He says he told them to discontinue his cable service, but they kept the cable service and just stopped billing him. And some would think that's an answer to prayer, but he just didn't get any more bills, but he got the service.

After repeated attempts to shut it down, he says, we just couldn't turn it off. And now he says the resulting TV addiction has harmed my family. He says, and I quote, I believe the reason I smoke and drink every day my wife eats too much is because we watch TV every day for the last four years. Charter Cable made us addicted to TV. Now listen to this. He says he will drop the suit in exchange for free lifetime Internet service from Charter.

Now that's a healthy switch, isn't it? That'll solve my problem. What do you need? Well, I need the suit to be one, because what I really need is less cable and more Internet. How foolish.

What do you need? Are we really sure we know? I got into trouble first and second hour for telling this story, but I got to be consistent because you may have heard about it.

So I'm going to tell you the story anyway and just risk one more hour. Somebody in church sent this to me. Three women wanted a husband and they wanted a certain kind of husband. And so they heard about a recently opened husband shopping center in Dallas. Women were allowed one visit where they could choose a husband from among hundreds of men. The center was designed with five floors, with the men increasing in positive attributes as you ascended up the floor. The only rule was once you went up to another floor, you could not return. You had to choose a man from that particular floor.

These three ladies decided to go and find their husband. They got off on the first floor, elevator open. They noticed a sign saying these men love kids and have a job. They looked at each other and said, well, it's better than nothing.

What do we do? They agreed. Let's go up one more floor and see what's up there. So they got on the elevator, went up to the second floor. Sign of the foyer said these men have high paying jobs, love kids and are very good looking. Oh, the ladies said to each other, you know, this is too good to turn down.

What should we do? They thought, well, now let's you know, let's find out what's up one more floor. The elevator opened to the third floor. The sign on the lobby wall said these men have high paying jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking and can cook. How many of you would stop right there? Oh, my, you know, they said, let's pick a man here. But then they talk. No, maybe there are better men up further. Let's go. The sign on the fourth floor read these men have high paying jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking, can cook and love doing housework and have a never ending romantic streak.

Mercy me, they said. But just think what must be waiting for us on the fifth floor. So up to the fifth floor they go.

The door opened. The sign read this floor is empty and exists only to prove that women are impossible to please. I didn't personally think that was funny. But I just had to be consistent here with all three hours. Ladies, don't feel bad. Somebody sent me this a few weeks later. This is for you.

It probably won't work, but this is for you. Kids were asked why their mommies married their daddies. One little girl was asked the question, Why did your mom marry your dad?

To which she responded, Well, my grandma says that mommy didn't have her thinking cap on. For the sake of self-preservation, let's go back to the text. Romans eight verse 26 effectively says we don't know what we want.

Really. The believer doesn't even know how to pray. That's how weak we are. That's how frail we are.

That's even how self-centered we are. We don't know how to go to God with requests that would please him entirely. And so the good news is God has left us a helper to help us even in that we knew that this Holy Spirit was given to us to walk alongside of us and to help us. We probably didn't know he helped us even when we prayed in the Greek word for help in verse 26 is very important to understand.

It's used of two men who are carrying a heavy log, one at one end of the log and one man at the other end of the log. And it's important because we need to know that just because the Spirit of God is praying on our behalf doesn't mean we don't pray. He is carrying his end of the load. So do we. And so we who groan needing wisdom and courage and faith and consistency and purity and direction. And we pray without ceasing not knowing exactly what is in the mind of God for us. We have this helper helping carry the load.

Ken Hughes writes about this word help. I love what he says. He says the Holy Spirit was given to us then not to give us armchair advice alone. No he rolls up his sleeves and he helps us bear our weakness.

How marvelous this is. We have now two intercessors on our behalf. One in heaven our Lord Jesus whom we know intercedes for us and one in our hearts. We have one in heaven and one on earth. Praying on our behalf. And when we don't know what to pray for and how to pray for it and when to pray for it and if we should even pray for it. The Holy Spirit carries that load by helping us pray as we should. Now how does the Spirit pray. Paul goes on to tell us how he says but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Next verse and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Here's how the Spirit helps us pray three ways quickly. Number one he personally intercedes for the believer. A very important word to underline our circle for we do not know how to pray as we should but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings.

You want to underline that word. It's redundant for emphasis but the Spirit himself intercedes for us. It's as if he's saying the Holy Spirit doesn't want anybody to replace him in this critical role.

And think about it. He could have appointed cherubim and seraphim to pray continually on your behalf to mutter your name before God. He could have commanded and enabled the rocks and the hills and the trees and the streams to repeat your name before God. He could have been satisfied with the fact that other believers are praying on your behalf but he isn't. He says I in effect must pray for you myself. So the Spirit of God prays on your behalf and I want to challenge you to not believe the lie of the enemy who will come along who lay the snare for your feet and lay it over and over again the lie that says you are on your own.

You are alone in this journey. Paul says that's a lie. The Holy Spirit himself is interceding for us.

By the way the little word us is italicized which means the translators provided it to give meaning to the context. You could write in there your own name as I've done in the margin of my Bible for the Spirit himself intercedes for Stephen. And I've written the names of my family Marsha and Benjamin and Seth and Candace and Charity. The Holy Spirit intercedes for you. And I wonder what are you troubled about?

What keeps you up at night? Have you ever thought about the fact that the Holy Spirit has that on his prayer list for you? What are you praising God for? Ever thought about the fact that the Holy Spirit is praising the Father with you? You have a helper who is praying personally interceding for you. Second of all the Spirit prays with passionate communion with the Father.

The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. This is not some sort of charismatic tongue. This is not some sort of gibberish. The verb stonadzo is the same verb used for nature and used for the Christian. This is the deep sighing is how you could translate it.

This is emanating from a deep longing on your behalf. What you have here is an amazing and rare description of inter Trinitarian communication. The Spirit communicating with the Father in union together. Dr. Earl wrote this in his word study. Isn't it true that intercessory prayer reaches its deepest depths when it passes beyond the realm of anything other than a groan?

How deep is it? Paul said to the Corinthian believers even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now you would think that because the Spirit's will and the Father's will are identical and because God is one though three persons Paul's statement would seem unnecessary right?

Why would they need to say anything? The idea of communication in and between Father, Son and Spirit on our behalf seems almost redundant right? Well Paul is pointing up the truth for the sake of encouragement to let us know that a triune God is completely in unity on our behalf. Praying for us. Communicating together for us.

It's an amazing thought. What a mystery and how encouraging the Spirit of God personally intercedes he passionately communes and third he purposefully reinforces the will of God. The first two points I gave you tell us what the Spirit does for us.

This third point tells us why. Look at verse 27. Because he intercedes for the saint according for the purpose of the will of God. The will of the Father.

Not our will but thine be done right? Do you know what it means to pray in the Spirit then? Jude in his little letter verse 27 said to the believer pray in the Spirit. What does that mean?

You feel differently? Does that mean that you have a sense of closeness? When you pray in the Spirit what it means is you pray a prayer the Spirit would pray. And what is the kind of praying the Spirit prays? According to the will of God the Father. So we pray a prayer that the Spirit would not mind repeating. We pray a prayer ultimately saying God I don't really know what I need.

I don't know what's in the future and I so easily mistake and misunderstand and miss what you're doing in the past present and future. So please help me so that ultimately I can do your will. I can ultimately please you.

I can bring glory to your name. The best prayer you will ever pray is the prayer of daily surrender to the will of God who envelops your every move with intercessory prayer so that ultimately we fulfill the will of God. In fact the best prayer that you will ever pray is a prayer you don't know how to make but the Spirit does. And the Helper makes it for you with groanings too deep for words. You come to an end of a paragraph like this and you must marvel at the goodness of God the grace of God the security of God the promise of our inheritance because of God the redemption that he has mapped out for us and he will make sure comes to pass in between old earth and new earth and new heaven in between this old body of flesh and that coming glorified body of confirmed holiness in between the struggle now to advance the cause of Christ and that day when the cause of Christ will be ultimately seen in all its wonder as the glory of God fills the earth in between here and there there is one within us groaning on our behalf one who will help us fight the fight now one who will help us run the race now one who will help us bear the cross now and who gives us the confidence and encouragement that we glean from this text that one day the groaning of nature and the groaning of the believer and the groaning of the Spirit will all be put to rest on that day when all of the groaning is exchanged for eternal glory. I'm so glad you took the time to join us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. The message you just heard is entitled When You Don't Know How to Pray.

It's the fourth and final lesson in Steven Davies' series called From Groaning to Glory. You can download these messages from our website. Simply navigate to wisdomonline.org. Our number here at the office is 866-48-BIBLE. On our next broadcast, Steven is going to begin a two-part series from Romans 828. Make sure to join us for that right here on Wisdom for the Heart.