Romans 8:26—”…For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
There are two kinds of people on earth: one type who lives in their flesh and the other who lives in the Holy Spirit. As Believers, we belong to the second category those who are in Christ Jesus; we were set free with the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus compared to those still bound by the law of sin and thus death. Those who live in the flesh set their minds on all things of the flesh and get death because they are hostile to God, do not submit to God’s law, and cannot please God. But you, who live in the Spirit, set your minds on the things of the Spirit and get life and peace, because the Spirit of God dwells in you.
When we do not have the Spirit of Christ, we do not belong to Lord Jesus. But when Christ is in you, even if the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
When we live by the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body. All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God; we receive the Spirit of Adoption as sons. The Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, heirs of God, and thus fellow heirs with Christ. This relationship is on the fact – we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him.
We, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons and for the redemption of our earthly bodies to Heavenly ones. We hope for the unseen, we wait for it with patience.
In this context, the Spirit helps and strengthens our weakness by inspiring our prayers. At the moment, we do not know about God’s purpose for our existence. We cannot see our entire timeline as God does. We only see things that God reveals to us. In our hope and dependency on Him, we will follow Him on the path that He leads, though we do not know where the road will take us. For this reason, we do not know what to pray for or how to present our prayers as we ought. Also, as humans, we cannot fix our focus while we pray; our pettiness, distractions, and desires, easily overtake our desire to pray. It is to this weakness and incompleteness of our desires and prayers that the help of the Holy Spirit gets directed; the Spirit of our Heavenly Father speaks in us. It is then that the Holy Spirit in us intercedes for us with groanings, because the emotions are too deep to be uttered with words. Our language breaks down in the attempt to express our deepest emotions and our truest love.
Then, God who searches our hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God. For God foreknew us, and predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son; and we whom He predestined, God also called, justified, and finally glorified! And in this, lies our promise and our hope!
