8:26
“In the same way”. Why does Paul say “in the same way”? Well if you look back at the last verse we saw that “we wait patiently” is too passive a translation, it more has the sense of “we push through”. Now we can often feel too weak to push through, to weak to keep on going, but the Holy Spirit enables us to keep on going, He helps us in our weakness. When faced with battles we need to remember that it is not all about my strength and ability, it is about the Holy Spirit and me and that changes the odds considerably!
One of the key ways in which the Spirit helps us is through prayer. He intercedes for us with “wordless groans”. There is much debate about exactly what “wordless groans” means. Some think it refers to praying in tongues. Now this may be part of the meaning, and when in a battle (indeed at all times) I would encourage you to pray in tongues, but that is not the whole meaning. The Spirit intercedes for us in ways that go way beyond our understanding. By the way, if we want to benefit from the Spirit praying, we need to pray as well! If we want to receive revelation and understanding then we need to read the Bible more, if we want to experience more of the Spirit’s help in prayer we need to pray more!
8:27
With our prayers we can sometimes wonder if we are praying for the right thing, or, as it says in the previous verse, we may not know what to pray at all. This is not the case with the Holy Spirit. God, who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit, and the Spirit intercedes perfectly, all His prayers are in perfect agreement with the will of the Father, so answers are assured. We sometimes talk of being uplifted or encouraged by the prayers of others, or knowing that others are praying for us. This is good, but just think how much more we should be encouraged and uplifted because the Holy Spirit, God Himself, is praying for us!
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