Romans 8 is many a Christian’s favourite chapter in the entire Bible – and for good reason!
What begins with a declaration of true Christian freedom – “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” – the chapter transverses indwelling sin’s defeat, sonship through the Spirit and His inner-witness confirmation, earthly suffering, glory’s hope, and the all-conquering, saving, eternally certain love of God in Jesus Christ!
It is in the midst of such a gloriously sprawling theological landscape, that this verse of great beauty comes:
“Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
I would love to be a better pray-er! However, and this is the crux of this wonderful verse, my ineptitude in prayer ought to hold no barrier in praying whatsoever, for the Holy Spirit helps in our weaknesses – not that He only helps in our weakness in praying, but Paul is especially concerned here to highlight prayer.
Paul struggles in prayer, so did the disciples – see them falling asleep rather than praying, in Jesus’ great time of need (Matt. 26:40-41) – so do not be surprised to find yourself also struggling to pray as you would like – nor be too discouraged.
Your weakness, ineptitude, and struggles in prayer – like mine – ought not to prevent you from praying, nor discourage you or turn you away – for the Holy Spirit helps in our weaknesses –yours, as well as mine!
Jeremiah Burroughs used a wonderfully helpful description of the Spirit’s help as being like when a person tries to lift a long, heavy piece of timber by picking it up at one end, thus finding it impossible to lift the entire piece of timber off the floor completely – but then along comes another person who picks up the timber at the other end, which helps the first person to finally fully lift the timber.[1]
(We could just as easily replace the piece of timber with a heavy sofa – though maybe sofas were not so much of a thing back when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, and maybe not even for Jeremiah Burroughs in the seventeenth century, though I am not sure!)
Jeremiah Burroughs leaves us with a beautiful picture of how the Holy Spirit helps us – in prayer, as well as His many other helps. Indeed, Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as “the Helper” (John 14:26). William G.T. Shedd explains that “the Holy Spirit co-operates with the regenerate will”,[2]and so we must also remember that we are to pick up our end of the “sofa” and then the Holy Spirit will pick up His.
Feeling and owning our weakness in praying ought never stop us from coming before the Lord our God in prayer. Charles Spurgeon was once recorded as saying, “If I feel myself disinclined to pray, then is the time when I need to pray more than ever.” Whenever I do not feel like praying, that quote always springs to my mind – for which I am extremely grateful. However, the greatest encouragement to prayer remains as this:
The Lord God has invited us to come boldly before His throne of grace through Jesus Christ, His Son, where He has promised help and mercy in times of need…
Not content with leaving us with the offer of communing with the most holy Lord God Almighty in the heavenly places, even as a beloved son comes before his dearest (Abba) father, God has not left us to pray alone. He, by the Holy Spirit, will help us in our praying.
How thankful ought we to be for this help! After all, what actually should we pray to an eternally transcendent yet immanent (closely intimate), holy God?
As well as the Lord Jesus leaving us with a helpful guide in a model prayer and many examples of prayer throughout the Bible, God has promised that if we begin to pray (lifting up our end of the sofa), the Holy Spirit will help us pray (lifting up His end of the sofa), interceding with us in our prayers, even as Jesus is interceding for us in His prayers.
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