HOW THEN SHOULD WE PRAY? – “DON’T WORRY ABOUT WORDS”

How does God look at our prayers? Is God interested in our language and our  skill to construct “beautiful” sentences? Is God impressed when we pray with Bible references? How about our cries and nothing but our tears and silent cries? How would God look at such prayers? What does the Bible say about such prayers? “HOW THEN SHOULD WE PRAY?”

Prayer is our heart cry to the LORD Jesus, our God and our Redeemer, as we understand from the Bible. It is the pouring out of our hearts to our Father in heaven. We understand very plainly that the LORD God Almighty is not interested in the words, the grammar and the syntax, nor our flowery language. God is keen on our hearts and its intent, motives and desires. So “DON’T WORRY ABOUT WORDS” God looks deeper into our hearts than the words flowing out of our lips. The Holy Spirit of God, who is given to us as our Guarantor, will help us most certainly when words fail us, and command over language and Scriptures is not our strength. HalleluYah!!!
– “26 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. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” – Romans 8:26-27

How wonderful and comforting it is to know that God cares for us, our situations and our prayers. What a relief it is to know that God is not keen on our words and our language. What a blessing it is to realise that, God had already made a provision for any eventuality, by giving us His Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit would take care of all our defects and deficiencies in “properly” expressing our prayers. God the Holy “…Spirit also helps in our weaknesses…the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered…He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

The Berean Study Bible Notes commenting on Romans 8:26 notes some very important points – “…the indwelling Holy Spirit continually partners with us, compensating for every weakness—especially our inability to pray as we should. He does not merely observe; He intercedes with divine intensity, ensuring our needs and God’s purposes meet in flawless harmony. Every groan, tear, or unspoken ache is gathered by Him and presented to the Father in perfect accord with heaven’s plan, giving confident hope that no moment of weakness can thwart God’s good work in His children.” – Berean Study Bible Notes

David Guzik, further comments thus on the following words from Romans 8:26-27 – “… BUT THE SPIRIT HIMSELF INTERCEDES FOR US WITH GROANS TOO DEEP FOR WORDS…”
– “The Spirit Himself” underscores personal involvement of God Himself in our prayers. He does not delegate that to someone else. In fact it is God who is within us, the Third Person of the Trinity, who helps us pray to the LORD our heavenly Father who is above.
– The word “Intercedes” implies the active pleading of the Holy Spirit – “…the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us…” – parallels the role of our LORD Jesus as our heavenly Advocate, pleading our case in the presence of our Father in heaven – 1 John 2:1.
– The “Groans too deep for words” displays the intensity of the need, and not the uncertainty of our prayers. These sighs and groans are in perfect alignment with God’s will – “He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” – Romans 8:27.

Let us read a few other Scripture portions to help us see that God our LORD and our Father cares for us and our situations…and that, He is not interested in the depth of our language.
– “13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. 14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. 15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.” – 1 Samuel 1:13-15
– “9 Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.” – Psalm 38:9

We ought to be ever so grateful and thankful to the LORD our God for being good, gracious and merciful towards us. God our Father cares for us and our prayers. He minds not the broken prayers and the sighs, the groans and the tears…He understands them perfectly well…for God the Holy Spirit will help us in all our prayers. So let us not hesitate or doubt, but pray unhindered, even if our language is broken, and is filled with nothing but our sighs and our groans. God our LORD and our Father cares for us and our prayers. SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!