Prayer

"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."

- Romans 8:26 (NIV)

When I was in high school, my dad had me and my siblings each memorize a chapter of the Bible. I don't remember what chapter he assigned to my siblings, but I was given Romans 8. I am not good at memorization. High school Sarah thought it was an impossible task. It took a lot of time, effort, and a LOT of repetition. Eventually I did memorize it. And while I can't quote the entire chapter today, I still remember the overall theme and a handful of verses.

This is the one book of the Bible that I always return to. No matter what season of life I’m in, I seem to always be able to pull out something new and relevant. It's played a pretty major role in my life for the past decade.

Fast forward about 4 years from that initial high school assignment. I was in college and I was struggling with something not "feeling right" in my life - but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was or why I felt so uneasy. After talking to several friends and leaders, someone asked if I had prayed about it. I hadn't. I responded with the excuse of "I don’t really know what to pray for”. They pointed me to Romans 8:26. And it's honestly changed my life. "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." 

It's so easy to just not go to God when you can't verbalize what is wrong or when you're not even quite sure what's wrong. But the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf. Not only does He intercede for us, but He does so through wordless groans. He translates for us. If all you can do is groan or cry or scream, do it in prayer. Address it to God. It doesn't have to be fully formed sentences. Or even words. It can literally be a groan. A groan can be a prayer. That was a life-changing realization for me. 

I had always imagined any "he cried out to God" phrases in the Bible as just addressing God loudly or with lots of emotion. But now I interpret that phrase slightly differently. Sometimes we really do need to just cry/shout out to God - when we don't have words. And that's okay. In fact, I would argue that it's not just okay, it's good! It's good to go to God even when we don't have a nicely phrased or rehearsed prayer ready to go in our back pockets. We aren’t always going to know what to pray for. But God still wants us to come to Him. Even if we can’t voice or put into words exactly what's wrong, we can still pray. Even if it’s just an uneasiness in our spirit, we can still pray. Pray even when you don't have the strength to verbalize your needs. Prayer is powerful.