“Likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmities—for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. And, He that searches the hearts knows what is the Mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the Will of God.”
Romans 8:26-27
Even on our best day, we still struggle and continually need His help.
Praying.
Without a doubt, it’s the most difficult spiritual discipline of any believer. Part of it is our natural lack of desire to pray, preferring instead to sing “I Did It My Way.” Another built-in difficulty is our sinful pride—part of our Adamic Nature’s “Three Achilles’ Tendons” (I Jn. 2:16). And, even when we desperately long to pray as Jesus did (Lk. 11:1), we still so often end up at Rom. 7:24 (“O wretched man that I am!”) instead of Rom. 8:1 (“There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”).
That’s why we cringe when we read James’ piercing words: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all men liberally and upbraids not—and it shall be given him. But, let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed—for let not that man think that he shall ask anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).
And, then we read “You have not, because you ask not. You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:2d-3).
No wonder God’s Word is described as being “sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the diving asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12)!
Help us, O Lord!
Even now, our spirits groan within us as we realize how faithless and ineffectual we are. We inwardly pine over how we grieve Your Holy Heart over our hard hearts and callused consciences.
Yet, You have told us to “come boldly unto Your Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). And, You’ve given us Your Holy Spirit to guide and assist us as we pray. Thank you, Lord!!
Therefore, help us, O Lord, to remember, as Charles Finney said, “It is Your revealed Word (Truth) that influences men and prayer that influences You.” May our heartfelt cry be “O, Holy Spirit, pray for us right now. Take our paltry prayers and perfect them according to the Father’s Will and present them on our behalf in Jesus’ Name. And, do what is necessary in my life to make me a ‘living sacrifice’ (Rom. 12:1-2) and ‘vessel fit for Your use’ (II Tim. 2:21) so I, like Jacob, can have ‘power with God and power with men’ (Gen. 32:28).”
By Tom Smith Morning Manna Dated February 22, 2010
