Romans 8:26-27 “Comfort”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁶but in the same way also the Spirit helps in our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as it is necessary, but the Spirit Himself intercedes on our behalf with groans unspoken, ²⁷but the One searching the heart knows what [is] the mind of the Spirit because He intercedes in accordance with God in behalf of [the] saints.

As I observed before, this is, of course, a wonderful passage of Scripture. I would guess for most of us, one of the most wonderful ideas expressed here is how the Holy Spirit “intercedes for us with groans unspoken.” The NIV translates it “with groans that words cannot express.” The ESV translates it “with groanings too deep for words.” Here we are again, dealing with the reality that, for us Christians, this world is a very painful place.

Ever since v. 17, Paul has been addressing the fact of our suffering in this world. Of course everyone, saved or lost, suffers here, but, in a way, our suffering is worse precisely because we know it shouldn’t be. We know this isn’t how God created the world and we know the day will come when it will never be again. However, we have to live in the meantime. We watch others suffer and die while we suffer and die ourselves. As we’ve read here, faith give us hope that we might endure it all and the Holy Spirit comes to help us even in something so seemingly simple as our prayers.

But here we see us at “rock bottom.” Isaiah’s description is fitting: “Lord, they came to you in their distress ,,, they could barely whisper a prayer. As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in Your presence, O Lord” (26:16,17). Anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time at all knows what it is to be at a place where all we can do is sit in God’s presence and groan – at least in our hearts. I love what Alexander Mackennal said (ca. 1870):

“We have all been conscious of a deep feeling of something wrong in us that no words can express. We feel more than we know about the ruin of our sinfulness; we hope for a blessedness that we see not and cannot utter ... The longing for communion with God is often unutterable … In silence we look up to Him, peaceful in His presence … The longing for submission to God is also at times unutterable … This is what the inner spirit longs for; but the longing to submit can only show itself in ‘groanings which cannot be uttered’ … knowing our ignorance, we fear that the answer to our petitions may be more a curse than a blessing. Desire is strong, but faith in the unknown will of God is stronger. We can but bow and trust ‘with groanings which cannot be uttered.’”

What a comfort it is to know that, when we honestly have no words to say, we can just sit in the Lord’s presence – whether silently or even crying our eyes out – and know the Holy Spirit is speaking for us?  I have found that true even in my praise. Sometimes I want to praise God, but I simply find no words. Once again, I can simply sit in His presence, and know the Holy Spirit is communicating to the Father perfectly the words my heart wants to say, but simply cannot express.

And along those lines, what a comfort it is as well to know that the Spirit takes our mixed up, short-sighted, sometimes foolish, sometimes downright selfish prayers and “intercedes” for us. We have Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us in heaven, while the very Holy Spirit Himself occupies the throne of our hearts and intercedes on our behalf from here! And because our intercessor is the Holy Spirit Himself, we are assured that, by the time our prayers reach the Father’s throne, they are expressed perfectly according to His will.

Prayer is often compared to incense and we should note that when incense is burned, the smoke and aromas rise to heaven, while the ashes get left behind. In our prayers, the Holy Spirit Himself is the flame and, in the same way, He leaves the ashes behind and carries the sweet aromas upward.

No matter what we do, life here on this earth is going to be painful. As we saw in v. 17, we suffer here with Jesus that we might be glorified together with Him later. In v. 23, we groan along with the rest of Creation, waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.  Unfortunately, it is a very immature view of Christianity that somehow being saved means we’ll live “happy, happy, happy all the day.” Our Bible itself would warn us there will be times we can’t even bring ourselves to utter a prayer. However, our Lord has provided this comfort to us – to know, whether from our words or from our silence, and even from our groanings – the Holy Spirit is always picking up “the other end” and making sure our prayers reach the Father as sweet aromas.

Pray on, my friends!