July 18

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. — Rom 8:26 BSB

“We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” How often we find this to be true! Our minds are clouded with darkness, ignorance floods our soul, unbelief torments our spirit, guilt weighs down our conscience, and a multitude of evil imaginations or foolish wanderings distract our thoughts. Satan hurls his fiery darts at us, and a thick cloud covers the mercy seat. Doubts and infidelity whisper their vile suggestions, and amidst this confusion, prayer feels like idle breath, an empty mockery before God.

In this state of chaos, how kind and gracious it is of the Holy Spirit to come to the aid of the bewildered saint, teaching us how to pray and what to ask for. The Spirit is said to “help our infirmities” because these troubles are not willful, deliberate sins but wretched weaknesses of the flesh. The Spirit helps by overcoming the power of unbelief, calming the mind, rebuking Satan and his fiery darts, filling us with a reverence for God’s power and presence, and presenting Jesus before our eyes as the Mediator at the Father’s right hand. The Spirit raises our faith in Christ’s person, work, blood, and righteousness, and intercedes for us with “groanings that cannot be uttered.” When the soul is thus helped to pray, its prayers become spiritual sacrifices, and its cries reach the ears of the Almighty, for “He who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:27; James 5:4; 1 Peter 2:5).