The Intercession of the Holy Spirit
What Happens When We Don't Know What to Pray?
“I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” - Psalm 77:4 (NRSV)
This line from Psalm 77 has resonated with me because I have known such trouble and what it means to be at a loss for words. My story, as my family and friends know, is one of death. At the age of twenty-three, my father died from cancer. A few years later my wife and I lost our son Kenny, who was only three days old. Then only a year later my younger brother John unexpectedly died.
That’s my story. Your story may be similar or different. People encounter suffering in various ways. Realities like cancer, divorce, chronic depression, suicide, disability, poverty, racism, addiction, and much more may be your story. Whatever the suffering may be, Romans 8 describe it as a frustration that all of creation is subjected to and a reality that results in groaning for us as believers. Such suffering is a weakness we live with as we await the fullness of our redemption in Christ.
One of the challenges we face in living with such sufferings is knowing what we ought to pray for. In fact, there are times when we don’t know what exactly we should pray for. There are times when we find ourselves so troubled that we just don’t have words to say or words to pray. What we may take comfort in is knowing that the Holy Spirit knows what to say and pray. Romans 8:26-27 tells us:
“In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans. The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God’s will.”1
This is the intercessory role that the Holy Spirit takes up in our lives. Even when we are at a loss for what we should do, the Holy Spirit is praying for us.
I don’t know about you but knowing the Holy Spirit is praying for us seems very liberating. First of all, we don’t have to have the right words to pray or necessarily even words at all because the working power in prayer is God through the Holy Spirit. I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray with words we verbally express. I just want us to understand that when we are too troubled to speak and don’t know what we ought to pray for, we can know that the Holy Spirit is interceding for us in our prayer by praying for us.
Perhaps then another way of praying is to spend time in contemplative prayer, which is actually an ancient Christian practice. Contemplative prayer is a time of reflection on our day and life, focusing on what comes to mind knowing that the Spirit is interceding for us. However, developing a practice of contemplative prayer requires carving out time and space for ourselves where we can be silent. In her book Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton writes “The silence becomes a time when we listen for the prayer that the Holy Spirit is praying deep within us as he moves between the depths of our human experience and the divine will, interceding for us beyond words.”2
In my own life, there have been times when I absolutely had no idea what to say in prayer. Maybe I would pray the Maranatha of “Lord, come” or pray “Lord, have mercy” but not much else. Sometimes I would just say “Lord, you know…” and then be silent before God. I’m just thankful that the Spirit was interceding for me in prayer over these last twenty years and still is.
So perhaps today is a day in which you find yourself unsure of what to pray for. Maybe you are so troubled that you can’t even speak. If so, I am sorry. Perhaps I can encourage you to pray, to simply take a walk and be silent before God, allowing the Holy Spirit to pray.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006, 70.
Thank you, Rex. Those who struggle with real pain and senseless, tragic loss (and it is all usually senseless and tragic) can find great comfort in these words.
Did you notice there’s a lot of “groaning” going on in these few verses? Creation groans, we groan, the Spirit groans--and all of this forms a synergy that is expressed in verse 28.
The old NEB follows the Alexandrian variant in verse 28: “...and in everything, as we know, he co-operates with us for good with those who love God and are called according to his purpose” (the NEB suggests it is the Spirit who groans with us in our prayers who is using our prayers to make the good take place). The RSV, also following the Alexandrian variant translates it as
"We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”
Recently, this translation made even N. T. Wright turn his head and rethink the traditional translation of Romans 8:28. The word sunergei (to work with) is found in verse 28 and Wright thinks the RSV is on to something. He would say, "We know that God is working all things for the good with and through those who love him—those who are called according to his purpose.”
In other words, rather than throwing out Romans 8:28 to those struggling with pain and suggesting that somehow the tragedy is good or makes things good--Paul *may* be saying, “No. We pray in our intense pain and in our struggles--not even knowing how to pray or what to say--our pain is too raw, but the Spirit reads it, understands the intent of our hearts, and with and through our prayers (not just this but certainly including them) he will work with us to bring “the good”--redemption in all its forms-- to creation; even in the middle of horrible evil and tragedy.