08/28/2024
Are you having trouble finding the words to pray this morning? Is your heart so heavy that there just doesn't seem to be any way you can express the depth of your feelings to God? Well, maybe you are expressing yourself, but you just don't realize it. You are probably praying much more effectively than you think.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Romans 8:26 ESV
When I first read this scripture I was young and didn't understand the pain and disappointments of life, but later, when I read this scripture again it lifted me up. Those times when I didn't think I was able to pray... When all I could do was cry and moan as my heart broke before God I was praying in the Spirit. You see... God speaks many languages and one of them is comprised of our moaning and emotion. Just because we can't find the words in our native language doesn't mean that the Spirit isn't speaking for us.
The night I received the news that my father had died, I couldn't speak. Finally, I went back to my bedroom, stepped into the shower, and with the warm water flowing over me I stood there crying and moaning to God. He heard my prayer. Prayer from the heart, even a broken one, is what the Lord values most; it is our most honest prayer... It is our most urgent call.
In many churches saints are taught how to structure their prayers, and learn rote prayers for times when their own words won't come or suffice. There is more to prayer than this and there is little comfort in stock prayers. Pastor E.M. Bounds realized this when he wrote...
"An increase in educational facilities and a great increase in money will be the direct curse to Christianity if they are not sanctified by more and better praying than we are doing." – E. M. Bounds
Learning about prayer and memorizing institutional prayers can be edifying, but that is no replacement for an open and heartfelt conversation with God. No words conceived by man can adequately express the pain of a broken heart, nor the sorrow of sin. In those times of deep emotion and regret the Spirit must intercede for us and speak the language of heartbreak and contrition.
This morning someone reading this message has cried, or moaned aloud as emotion overcame them. I encourage you to take that emotion to your prayer closet, or even your shower.... Take your heartbreak to God by allowing the Holy Spirit to speak for you. If you are grieving, God will not only hear you, but will comfort you, and if you have sinned in some unspeakable way, He will hear your regret and your soul's cry for forgiveness... And forgive you. God and His Holy Spirit speak the language of our souls, it is their native tongue.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who taught us how pray in words, tears, sweat, and blood. Thank you also for your Holy Spirit who translates our unspeakable feelings into moans and groans that express to you what our language cannot. Thank you for helping us to pray effectively with our minds and our hearts together as we humble ourselves before you, and enter into the true and honest conversation of our souls. We thank you for hearing us as we bare ourselves to you in the moment we first believe, by crying, calling out to you, and experiencing the overwhelming joy of that conversion… to our final breath when the tears, the moans, and the groans usher us into your presence and replace our hurt and heartbreak into eternal peace, comfort, and joy. In our lives we pray, not only with our minds, but more than this, we pray with all that we are, and with who we are. We pray to you in the fullness of love and life as you have intended, and when praying within your will we receive your many blessings by doing so. Jesus tells us that you bless us in so many amazing ways through our prayers; you bless us when we are poor in spirit, when we mourn, when we are humble, hungry, thirsty, show mercy, are pure of heart, make peace, and are persecuted for our faith. In every facet of our lives we come to you in prayer and you are faithful as you hear us, answer us, and bless us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who enters into conversation and relationship with us. Holy are you who speaks to us wherever we are, and in whatever language is required… whether it be earthly, bodily, emotionally, or heavenly. You are merciful and full of grace as you hear the outpouring of our hearts and souls, and then comfort us, forgive us, bless us, and transform us into the image of Christ. Through prayer we find you waiting, and are lifted up in our faith to bask in the glow of your presence forever. In prayer we are held in your arms and set aside for your use… we are made holy. Hear us as we pray today Father. Hear us now and forevermore. Seat us at your table, defend us, comfort us, and still us in your love. These are but a few of our prayers Lord, however our lives will afford us many more opportunities to pray further to you, and through our words, tears, blood, moans, and groans, we will enter into your presence with them, experiencing there your grace, and basking in your glory forevermore.
Amen.
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Romans 12:11-12 NIV
“Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.”
Psalm 66:20 KJV
Rich Forbes