This hoping for something more and sharing Christ's sufferings is difficult, for it highlights a weaknesses. In fact if we had no weaknesses then we wouldn't find anything difficult! But we do, and we do. So further work of the Holy Spirit is to help us in our weakness, and note that the key way He does this is through prayer. He intercedes for us, and does so with groanings too deep for words. Now this does not mean, or at least is certainly not restricted to, praying in tongues. The work of the Holy Spirit goes beyond our understanding (and of course praying in tongues is beyond understanding (1 Cor 14:14)). There is a key lesson here. We are to use our intellect, to use our minds, but our minds will only take us so far. We so easily fall into one of two traps. On the one hand some people despise the mind. If you do that then you are a fool, and an unbiblical one at that. Who created your mind? Who gave you your mind? And as we will read later, who renews the mind? But on the other hand our minds can only take us so far. It was never intended to take us all the way. We need to remember this in the area of apologetics. Intellectual defence and explanation of the gospel is important, but it cannot get us, or anyone else, all the way.
Particularly in difficult situations we often do not know what to pray for, or how to pray. You know what? It doesn't matter. The Holy Spirit knows what to pray, and He prays according to the will of God (for He is God), and God knows the mind of the Spirit. In any and every situation we need to learn to rest in Christ, knowing that the Holy Spirit is praying for us perfectly. Now this does not mean we do nothing, it does not mean we pray nothing, but we need to find a peace that trusts and rests in Christ even when we do not know what to do.
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