"Pray without ceasing. "
1 Thessalonians 5:17 T
THE GROAN OF PRAYER
Read It: Romans 8:22-23, 26b
Have you ever groaned when you felt something deeply? All of us have had reason to groan, but I suspect few of us know what it is to groan in prayer. The Holy Spirit does-and He does it on our behalf. This is one of the mysteries of prayer, the work of the Spirit in bringing our prayers before the throne in heaven. We can see what Paul means by groaning when we look at verse 22. The groaning of a mother in labor is both bad and good news. The bad news is that this is going to hurt. The good news is that something is going to happen. The good news is always worth the bad news. The product of the groan is greater than the pain of the groan. The creation groans as it awaits redemption. We also groan (v. 23) because, like the creation, we too have been affected by sin. So we groan when we see sin's ravages in our world. We groan when our families don't turn out the way they should. We groan at our own sin and failure. Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit identifies with us in our pain when we come to God in prayer. But the Spirit does more than just feel with us. He can take our pain and our deepest longings and interpret them to God. What does this say about prayer? It says the Holy Spirit only links with our prayer when it comes from our hearts, not just our lips. If you say your prayers just because it's bedtime, if you say grace just because it's mealtime, if your prayer never gets deep enough that it enters into Spirit territory, it's not prayer the way Paul is talking about prayer.
So there are times when you may not be able to articulate one word in prayer and yet say a lot. If you've ever come to the point where you are so concerned and so burdened for someone or something that all you can do is sigh, you're learning something important about prayer. God allows us to groan, because otherwise we would never really pray. We would say the words, but we would never pray from within. And that's where true prayer has to begin. Think About It The Holy Spirit only groans when you groan in prayer. He doesn't groan just with your words.
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