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Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. –– Romans 8:26-27
Words fail me… If not openly confessed, it is a recurring reality for me. Impromptu and extemporaneous are among the most frightening of words to me, which makes for any number of stressful moments being in a vocation that regularly calls upon me to act on those precise words. The beauty of the pulpit is that I have the opportunity to study, ruminate, pray, and prepare the words I speak. Am I suspicious or jealous of those preachers who claim no need of notes because of their confidence in the Holy Spirit to provide the message? Perhaps, but the message of the Holy Spirit for me was to emphatically indicate my need to sit down at a desk and sweat out the words which, prayerfully, bear at least some dim reflection of the Spirit’s imprint upon the scripture text.
While I may be unduly confident in my ability to form an intelligible sentence, I am utterly insecure about my capacity to articulate any semblance of coherence when in a space that demands unpremeditated, extemporaneous thought. The response I’d love to give in answer to just about every question or inquiry would be –– Can I get back to you on that? However, life demands more than that, and thus it is quickly apparent to those who encounter me that there is much muddling in my messaging, and that would include the Lord. It begs the question of whether the Lord’s ironic response to the sound of my voice is the same reaction I suspect most everyone else has to the sound of my voice … “Oh Lord!” Therefore, I find immense comfort in Paul’s assertion about the efficacy of our prayers. “… we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words … the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” The Spirit transforms the unintelligible into the intelligible, the scattered into the coherent, the rough-edged into the smooth. Surely, Paul had the Psalmist in mind when offering this counsel, for it was the Psalmist who granted us the image upon which I have depended to sustain my faith and hope. “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away … Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.”
Our Lord knows our needs before we ask, and despite our ignorance in asking, transforms our muddled prayers and plans into purpose and meaning. Words may fail me, but God will not. “the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
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