Scripture Reading — Romans 8:22-28
We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. — Romans 8:26
In Romans 8, the apostle Paul explains that believers have a weakness when it comes to prayer. This involves much more than simply neglecting prayer or praying with wrong motives. Our weakness runs much deeper.
The best way to understand it is to compare it to the work the Spirit does to help us. We need the Holy Spirit to pray on our behalf because “we do not know what we ought to pray for.”
This does not mean we never know what to pray for. Many of us have long lists of valid prayer concerns. Our weakness, though, is that we do not understand how the things we pray for fit into the mysterious, sovereign will of God. It’s best understood as a spiritual disability.
So, as Paul describes it, “the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” Though there is much we do not understand, the Spirit understands completely. The Spirit situates the weakness of our prayers within the strength of God’s intentions. Our broken prayers are taken up and incorporated into divine purposes that we know nothing about.
We can trust the mystery of prayer! God is at work. As we pray, the Spirit is also praying. There is much we do not know, but we can know this: “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”
The Holy Spirit – A Heart Changer
By: George Vink, today reframemedia
Scripture Reading — Ezekiel 36:24-32
“I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” — Ezekiel 36:27
Hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, God’s prophet Ezekiel addressed the exiles of Israel with promises of change and improvement. The Lord would replace their hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. The giving of God’s Spirit would move the people to live obediently, careful to do things God’s way. The gift of God’s Spirit would lead to repentance.
Four hundred years ago, church leaders gathered at the Synod of Dort to describe the Holy Spirit’s work in our conversion, from being dead in sin to being alive in Christ. Their words echo the passage we have read in Ezekiel today. “The regenerating Spirit,” they wrote, “… penetrates into the inmost being, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart … God activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.”
The Spirit of God helps people to discern and understand the truth of the good news of salvation. The closed, hardened heart of stone becomes a heart of flesh. And even though “in this life believers cannot fully understand the way this work occurs,” we can be assured that by God’s grace we do believe with our hearts and love our Savior.
Is God’s promise alive and well in your heart?
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