Romans 8:26-27
What is it that makes us weak when we suffer? Here's what the Bible says:
Our Weakness
Our primary weakness in suffering isn't physical, emotional, financial, or relational – it's spiritual. Specifically, we don't know how to pray. If we knew how to pray, we would be stronger. But we don't; so we're weak.
So how should we pray? Is there some special incantation? Open sesame? What is our prayer problem that weakens us?
1. We're shallow.
We pray for surface things and not deep things. We pray for healing of cancer rather than sanctification in cancer.
2. We're wrong.
We pray for our will rather than God's will. James 4:3 explains that Christians ask and don't receive because they ask wrongly to spend it on their own passions. Besides, we don't know what's best anyway. We're only right about things some of the time and none of us is aware of what our rightness percentage is. If God said yes to all our prayers all the time we'd be ruined. (Thanks, Tim Keller)
Our Help
But thank God he isn't turned away by our weakness. He helps. How? By giving Christians the Holy Spirit who lives within them and prays for them. How does the Holy Spirit pray for Christians?
1. He prays deep.
His prayers are groanings, the sighing sounds of a person under extreme pressure. God is not dispassionately removed from us in our suffering. He's within us, feeling our pressures, carrying our burdens.
The content of these groaning prayers are too deep for words. There are things going on inside us and around us that we cannot understand. We are like infants in our ability to grasp and communicate about the realities. No wonder we don't know how to pray as we ought. We don't even have language for it.
2. He prays right.
He prays perfectly according to God's will. Maybe you have some go-to pray-ers to whom you bring your most serious prayer requests because they seem to be more in tune with God. Who could be more in tune with God than God himself?
An Example
Think about Joseph who was: (Genesis 37-47)
– Hated by his brothers
– Almost murdered
– Sold into slavery
– Falsely accused of attempted rape
– Imprisoned
– Forgotten
– Enabled to save a nation and reunite his family
Maybe Joseph prayed for:
– A better relationship with his brothers
– Safety
– Freedom
– A good reputation
– Release from jail
– Remembrance among those who could help him
If he did, God answered:
– No
– No
– No
– No
– No
– No
Can you see how praying that way could have made Joseph weak in his suffering? Can you see how it could have made him bitter, exhausted, and frustrated? Can you see how his faith could have whithered as he received no positive answers to his prayers? Can you see how he might never have become a man:
– In tune with the Holy Spirit to interpret dreams
– Of integrity to gain favor with his captors/managers
– Of wisdom to prepare a nation for famine
– Of humility to forgive his brothers
Implications:
1. Go deep and right in your praying. Learn God's will in God's word and pray accordingly. There is strength in deep, right praying.
2. Go to Jesus. Go to the Holy Spirit. Go to the Father. And relax…
1 John 5:14-15 says:
"And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."
We may never get it right when we pray; but the Holy Spirit always gets it right. Which means that God always answers yes to his prayers. Which means God's will is being done in your life, even right now. Even in your suffering. Even if you don't understand it.
Do you think Joseph understood when he went through all those years of suffering? Do you think Job understood when his family, fortune, and health were wiped out?
This means that the mess is the process. This means that the fact that you are still struggling with anxiety or bankruptcy or both is not outside of God's plan; but part of God's plan.
Children
The more I lean about God (I'm probably at a .03% understanding level), the more convinced I become that we're to live like little children under his care. Infants don't understand why they're strapped into a car seat for hours at a time on long trips. They don't understand why their parents take them to doctors who stick them with needles. But even in their suffering, they are under the watchful eye and tender care of parents who love them.
So are we. And the more we understand this, them more we'll pray like Jesus. "Not my will, but yours."
Discussion Starters
1. Share one thing you know about the Holy Spirit.
2. Work through chapter 8 together and list everything it says about the Holy Spirit. Is any of this new to you? What strikes you most about what you see?
3. Share one way in which you have suffered.
a. What was your prayer life like during that time of suffering?
b. How did your suffering affect your prayers?
c. How did your prayers affect your suffering?
4. Who are the best intercessors you know?
5. In what ways are our prayers sometimes shallow or wrong (not according to God’s will)? What would deep, right prayer look like?
6. Why is it significant that the Holy Spirit prays according to the will of God? (See 1 John 5:14-15)
7. What does this passage mean for you, in your specific situation?
8. How can we serve one another in light of this passage?
9. How can your group pray for you this week?
