Romans 8: 26- 27
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans, and He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God
Introduction
This verse is often used to describe the act of praying in tongues. Often, many say that when you’re praying in the spirit, the spirit of God is groaning inside you, or interceding for you through wordless groans. But if you read the passage in the context, it has nothing to do with praying in the spirit or speaking in tongues.
In fact, when you read this passage in its context, it talks about the beauty of prayer. Because when you look at prayer, prayer is a very simple act. There’s nothing complex about prayer. All of us can pray and should pray. But oftentimes, you know, such beautiful truths about prayer are elevated to a level that only certain people can do, because if someone says that the Holy Spirit groans and this is what is praying in the spirit or praying in tongues, but when we go to 1 Corinthians 12, Paul clearly says that not all speak in tongues so then what about those who don’t speak in tongues? The Holy Spirit doesn’t intercede for them? What about those who don’t speak in tongues? The Holy Spirit doesn’t groan inside of them?
It’s a very wrong idea. It’s a very wrong concept, and it has nothing to do with praying in the spirit. Rather, it talks about the beauty of prayer.
What does it mean?
So if we look at chapter 8 in the context now, again, context is everything. If you take context out of a Bible verse you can create your own Bible, your own doctrine. So never take a verse out of its context.
If you look at chapter 8 as a whole, Paul talks about the truth that we are filled by the spirit. We are led by the spirit (Romans 8:2) and those who are led by the Spirit are children of God(Romans 8:14). We are adopted into sonship and, we have received a new father(Romans 8:15), and there is hope for us and our bodies will be redeemed( Romans 8:23). Finally, he comes to this point about prayer. In Romans 8:26, he says this, in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
So it’s established that we are the children of God. We are God’s sons and daughters. So if you look at a child, a child will ask for many things. Now my, you know, my son has learned to make calls from my wife’s phone to my phone. So, when I’m at the office, I get a phone call from my son, he asks, “Daddy, where are you? What are you doing? And asks, Can you buy a battery for me?” My Son has a list of things that he wants me to get but do I get all those things? No. I make it a point sometimes to not get those things he’s asking for. It’s not because I hate him, it’s because I love him. As a father, I know what to give my child. Look at what Paul is saying here, he’s saying that because of our weakness, the Spirit helps in our weakness. Some will say, well, brother, “I just came from work. I was too tired. I didn’t know what to pray for and I was just praying in tongues.” This kind of experience is often considered as spirit interceding or groaning for them in their weakness but that’s not the weakness that paul writes about.
The weakness here is that as human beings we are incapable of making the perfect prayer, incapable of praying in the way we should know how to pray. Because as human beings, we have an incapability in us. A New Testament scholar, C.H. Dodd defines prayer in this way. “Prayer is the divine in us, appealing to the divine about us.”
The point here is that, In our weakness. The holy spirit offers on our behalf. Now, you may wonder why, why, pastor, why can I not pray?
Why can we not pray as we ought to?
The first reason why we cannot pray the way we should pray is because we cannot foresee the future. We cannot see a year ahead of us or even an hour ahead of us. We may pray, and therefore we may say certain things, but when the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf, he intercedes because he sees things. He knows the future. He knows what is gonna happen, but we are limited in our words because we do not know the future. Do we know what’s going to happen? No, We do not even know what’s going to happen next week. If we knew, if we had the sense of knowing the future, probably we’ll have a lot more prayer points. But sometimes we go into prayer and we think, what do I pray for? What more do I pray for? Someone told me this, pastor, I was praying but then I ran out of prayer points. I was wondering, what do I do? I wanted to pray for one hour, but I got through all points in 15 minutes. So, I don’t know what to pray for. I am sure all of us have been there and this is a real struggle. Some will say, we start speaking in tongues when we do not know what to pray. If God has given you the gift of speaking in tongues, do it. It’s good. Do it in your personal private time. That’s awesome. That’s wonderful. However, when it comes to prayer, we must understand that there is a weakness in us, which means we cannot really pray in the way we ought to, and that is point when the spirit of God steps in. But, why does he do that? It’s because we are children and as children, we don’t know everything. We do not know how we ought to pray.
Because we are children, we ask for things that we do not know if it’s God’s will, but what happens is that the spirit intercedes for us, and the spirit of God prays for us.
The second reason why we cannot pray as we ought to pray is because we do not know what is best for us, but our heavenly father knows what is best for us.
If you look at the Greek culture, Pythagoras, Forbade his disciples to pray for themselves because he said they could never, in their ignorance know what was appropriate and best for them. Xenophon tells us that Socrates taught disciples simply to pray for good things and not attempt to specify them, but to leave God to decide what the good things were.
Isn’t that interesting? I think we learn a lot more from Socrates about prayer than from most television evangelists. Everybody is like very be very specific and a quick confession, I’ve also taught that. But the truth is we don’t know what we want. And because we have been adopted to sonship, we are given that place. Now the spirit of God dwells in us and prays on our behalf.
So this verse is not about praying in the spirit or speaking in tongues, but this verse is a verse that reminds us that we are incapable of a perfect prayer.
Conclusion
Do you want to know what the perfect prayer is, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit” and there’s one more point you can add to this that is, “not my will but let yours be done.” Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane prayed. He knew what’s gonna happen. He knew the suffering that’s gonna take place. But what was his prayer ? God, let this cup pass from me. If possible, take it away from me, but not my will let your will be done. We often think we know what we want, but this passage really reminds us that we don’t know what we want.
We’ll always come to a point where we feel incapable of praying in certain ways or connecting with God in certain ways. But the reality is, if we have to make the perfect prayer, it’s simply that Lord, let your will be done. I give my life, I give my spirit. I give everything into your hands. You do what you will do.
That is the perfect prayer because when you make such prayers, the Holy Spirit who knows the future, who knows everything that’s gonna happen intercedes on our behalf. This is what Romans 8: 26 & 27 means. So don’t misinterpret this to be about tongues.
C. H. Dodd puts it in this way. We cannot know our own real need; we cannot with our finite minds grasp God’s plan; in the last analysis, all that we can bring to God is an inarticulate sigh which the Spirit will translate to God for us.
Resources
This is an Excerpt from our Bible Study Session on Romans 8. Watch the full Session here
