Prayer beyond knowing, beyond passion, beyond anything.

The Heart of the Message:

Part One “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness”
Part Two “for we do not know how to pray as we should”
Part Three “but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; Romans 8:26

Greek Words in part Three
stenagmos; a groaning.  This is the only time this word refers to God.  It’s the only time it appears in this form.
huperentugchano; from huper (super abounding) and entugchano (to intercede) ¾to make petition for.  This is the only time this word appears in this intensive form.
Alaletos — inexpressible, too deep for words.  This is the only time we see this word in Scripture

We have in us places deeper than we know.  God talks with us there, sketching in our lives, our futures, and the deep truths.

We see God’s heart here.  He yearns with great ardor for us to know Him intimately. 

Many good things flood to us in God’s grace.  Rather than condemn us, He condemns sin in us to kill it, to remove it.  God fashions our escape from the law of sin and death.  He casts off our slavery.  He indwells us, adopts us, and allows us to call Him Papa as joint heirs with Jesus.  God empowers our life, in peace and resurrected power.  He lets us suffer and be glorified in Him, to reap the Holy Spirit’s first-fruits in us. 

This next truth stands alone in scripture.  If “all of creation groaning for the revealing of God’s sons and daughters” is Mount Everest.  This is K2.  No verse in God’s word promises more!  Many climb Everest every year.  Steel ladders help up the west wall.  A Sherpa broke the record of 18 hours for climbing to the top from Base by 6 hours!  Few climb K2.  Few dare its daunting heights.  Few climb verse 26’s dizzying heights.  Paul reveals three pieces we must know to climb these dizzying heights.

Piece # One:  And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness (NAS) or in the NIV helps us in our weakness.  …the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness (Living).

The Christian message thunders our strength in Christ, while we hold to our weak parts.  We live in Christ, yet still cherish dead things in us.  We grow in Christ, while still stunted.  Do not trust her who whispers all about you is marred.  Dump his podcasts that, on the other hand say we are nothing but potential (to him you’re a potential consumer).  We are both strong and weak; alive and dead; growing and stubby.  We are the only beings in God’s image who must die.  We’re the only animals to be redeemed.  Weakness comes to us.  Weakness need not hunt us to find us, so God’s spirit helps in our weakness.  To soar prayer’s dizzying heights, grasp NOT your strength, but your weakness!  Seize it to scale prayer’s depths.  My friend was so sick with cancer she could no longer pray, but someone left her a mystical, magical bear she could press… it sang her favorite prayer for her. 

Piece # Two:  “For we do not know how to pray as we should (NAS), we cannot see the future.  We do not know what we ought to pray for (NIV), we cannot predict all consequences of one act.  God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along.  If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter (Message).

You may be eloquent or poetic and still not know how to pray as you ought.  The disciples followed Jesus for years before realizing they did not know how to pray.  Paul wrote this after spending three years in a desert practicing his prayers!  Paul knew he did not know how to pray.  Do you know as much as he did?  Do you pray and then humbly ask God to shed light on how to move in spite of your blind prayers?  We don’t know how to pray.  Like climbing K2 for the first time, and trying alternate routes!  Moreover, we can’t guess if our prayer has cut deeply enough! 

Do you sense how deeply your last prayer cuts into all you love?  Hannah prayed wordlessly before Eli, moaning back and forth, appearing drunk, to ask God for a child.  Did Moses say, “I’ll return to this mountain with your folks?”  Did Isaiah know that saying, “I’m here!  Send me!” would cut deeply into his life and times?  Some prayers are too much to grasp, even if you say the words.  Some prayers are too deep to plumb.  So I don’t know how to pray, what can I do?  1) I pray what I know.  God makes up the difference.  2) I pray to know God’s corrections as He makes them.  3) I pray for Holy Spirit, and courage, insight, and humility to act on all He shows me.  Two things:  I know I’m weak.  I know I don’t know how to pray through this. 

Piece # Three has three “onlys” (groanings, superintercedes, too deep for words):  The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (NAS), or with groans words cannot express (NIV).  He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans (Message) The Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words (Living).

The English word intercedes is tepid.  Paul says He super-intercedes.  He aboundingly, with no limits intercedes!  Intercede here is supercharged compared to verses 27 and 34.  You need no saint to intercede for you.  You have God’s Spirit!  Dispense with angels or “spiritual guides”.  Tap the angels’ Boss!  God’s very Spirit super-intercedes for you! 

This is the only place we see another word here for God.  God’s Spirit groans!?  My own depths I do not know, God prays in those!  How?  Fears I’ve not overcome, God prays in them.  How?  Hopes I haven’t courage to hope out loud, the Spirit intercedes in those, but how? 

The Bible speaks of groans throughout, but they’re our groans save here in Romans! 

The Hebrews groaned under slavery in Egypt. Exodus 2:24, 6:5. 

The Hebrews groaned when beaten in the Promised Land, Judges 2:18

Job groaned under God’s heavy hand. Job 23:2

David groaned to make God hear. Psalm 5:1

David groaned at the devastation of the afflicted, and the needy’s groaning. Psalm 12:5

David groaned when he felt forsaken by God. Psalm 22:1

David’s groans pierced his silence about his sin with Bathsheba. Psalm 32:3

Prisoners and the dying groan. Psalm 102:20

We will groan at our latter end. Proverbs 5:11

Wicked rulers make us groan. Proverbs 29:2

A harsh reality made Isaiah groan. Isaiah 21:2

Silence from too much pain makes us groan, gasp, and pant. Isaiah 42:14

Jeremiah was weary with groaning. Jeremiah 45:3

Jerusalem groaned when naked and broken. Lament. 1:8

Ezekiel asked himself, “Why do I groan?” ¾ often. Ezekiel 21:6-7, 24:17, 23; 26:15; 30:24

The prophets groaned deeply.  Joel 1:18; Malachi 2:13.

Today in this verse we see, we hear the only time God groans with us.  His groans are indescribable, too deep for words.  Then scripture says something totally different about our groaning after this. 

We groan to leave this flesh, to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. 2 Corinthians 5:2 &4

God groans with us!  He groans in a depth words can’t touch.  If Christ is your Lord.  If you professed Jesus as Lord, baptized in His Name, then this groaning, this intercession happens for you, know the Holy Spirit super-intercedes for you. 

1)  Can I train to hear God in my weakness, to find Him when I know I don’t know how to pray, to hear His groaning for me?  Moses taught Israel, Be silent, and listen! You have now become God’s people!  Deuteronomy 27:9.  David: When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent, Psalm 4:4.  Solomon says there is a time to be silent, Ecc. 3:7. The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him Habakkuk 2:20.  Be silent before the Sovereign Lord Zephaniah 1:7.  Have trouble with silence?  Try blowing bubbles.  Absorb a sunset.  Walk quietly. Watch the night sky to practice awe and silence. 

2) I won’t get all of it.  I must obey with what I hear.

3)  Each test of my faltering faith brings me to a place of weakness, not knowing how to proceed… here He intercedes beyond what I can know.

4)  Pray knowing God never compares eloquence(s).  He plumbs your depths you may not know.  Catholics light candles to let God remember the prayer when they’re too tired.

Practice listening in obedience.  Heard a groan too deep for words?  Groaned for heaven yet?

The best I can give you for cleaning out your ears to hear silence better is clear confession.  Make clear, honest confession to God.

Prayers as “hello” or “I love you”

The premise is Paul sharing his prayers for people as his introduction to them, and his affection for them.

The Right Conversations

Romans 003 Is this hello or a prayer? 

Paul introduces himself to the Romans.  He gives his name.  He shares his job description and jumps to intimately share with them!  Opening the letter, you think “he is praying for these people”.  It sounds like he’s praying.  Listen.

“God is my witness how unceasingly I [am mentioning] you in my prayers that I may succeed in coming to you.  I [hope to] be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.”

Strange intro, but prayer is terribly intimate, and Paul is sharing his most intimate self!  He shares more prayers in the letter.  Prayers’ different nuances are in italics in the following paragraph.

Paul first invokes the presence of Holy God linking him to the readers.  He entreats Christ’s Father to watch over the shoulders of these new friends as they read his letter.  Paul vows only by God’s grace will these people see ¾ much less receive his words: he solemnly promises that.  He prosecutes his prayer onto papyrus and sends it.  Why do we not vow more prayers for others?  Do we hear too many orations?  Do we solicit all the time?  Do we reduce prayer to wishing?

Some Christians don’t say “pray” in conversation.  We “think” good thoughts, or “remember” you, but not “pray.”  Paul ignores that code.  He begins the letter in prayer. 

Do you receive letters, texts or emails with prayers in them?  I must bump up my prayers a notch.  Only prayer opens dimensions of this letter.  You don’t pray?  Then borrow prayers from the letter. 

Romans 1:8-15 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.  I thank Him because your faith is being reported all over the world.  God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times.  And now I pray that, at last, by God’s will He will open a way for me to come to you.  You know why?  I look forward to you and I being mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.  I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now.)  You see, I have so wanted a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.”

Paul says, “Everybody talks about your faith!  Did you know that?  I invoke God to grant you and me a harvest to share!  I can’t imagine not being built up in the Lord by hanging out with you!”  What an encouragement!

If you pray, or have studied prayer, have you found Paul’s deep dimensions of prayers?  Paul prays boldly, wildly, boundlessly!  As we may stand together, bow our heads, or hold hands.  Great!  Add Paul’s opening to your prayer arsenal:  Encourage others in prayers for them!

Prayer is terribly intimate, and Paul is sharing his most intimate self.  When a praying saint shared her prayers for me with me, it bound my prayers and hopes to her all of her days!

Mildred was a praying saint.  At age 91 she moved back home to Amarillo, Texas since, “… the deterioration can come at any time.”  She drove herself to Amarillo, checked out nursing homes, liquidated the house and moved.  She remained witty and alive for years; wearing gloves every day, and driving her 25-year-old ‘72 Cadillac chauffeuring other ladies to appointments. 

Years passed.  I visited Mildred, who related she prayed for me, my family, and my concerns.  Effusive, she protected deep secrets.  She had served as a huge hospital’s nurse administrator for fifteen years.  She loved a doctor for four decades, never revealing it!  He had no idea.  She worked with him.  She loved his family.  She loved her Lord, served at her church, and stayed single.  When the doctor’s wife died (after Mildred retired!)  Mildred gave his grief a full year before tipping her hand that their friendship might go further.  They married.  She wore gloves.  They shared precious years before he passed.  She is not weak or loose tongued.  She knows something you must learn in Christ to go on in the study of this Roman letter! 

Mildred says, “Don’t wait for the walls to speak.  Speak your entreaties and wishes to God and to each other!”  I must say to my son, “Loaning the car was my way of saying I trust you again.”  I must say, “Taking bread was to clearly say ‘I want to be restored’”.

You must hear my prayers for you.  If I hope a little hug at the end of the day will counteract our fight at dinner; I must say so.  I must say, “That ‘well done’ on the report card undoes my anger over chores undone.”  We all know better.  Paul says, “I must not fail to let you hear my prayers for you.”  We must pray better. 

I hope my prayers this week intimate how many hard things I went through last week.  I hope my extra phrase in the dinner table prayer tells my wife I found again to my first love for her.  We know better.  We all know better.  Paul says, we know better.  I must not fail to let you hear my prayers for you. 

We must share our brightest prayers with each other.  We must pray our deepest hopes for each other.  We must encourage each other with our truest prayers, our highest hopes for each other in Christ.  Marriages need this.  Friendships need this.  My children need this.  The church needs this.  I must not fail to let you hear my prayers for you.

I hope my timid prayer told you that you taught me something new.  “I’m thinking of you” cannot substitute for a prayer: “I’m dying to tell you, so you know how much it meant when you prayed me through that terrible time last spring.” We know better.  We all know better.  Paul says, we know better.  We must pray better.  Paul shows we salt our speech with tiny prayers slipping out to make our conversations holy.  Mildred knew better.  She let me hear her prayers for me.

She told me her prayers for me.  She checked on her prayers!  “How’s my little prayer for you coming along?  What’s God doing in answer to my prayers to Him?”

Paul began as a servant and returns to that in 1:9, which is good.  Moreover he builds up Roman church members as a servant might.  They can reread encouraging prayers any time. 

Hear Paul’s serving in all the letter.  “Paul, bought by his master, Christ Jesus.” 1:1 “God whom I serve in my spirit.” 1:9. “I serve in a newness of the Spirit” 7:6.  “[Never] lag behind in diligence, [but be] fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” 12:11 “[Serve Christ to be] acceptable to God” 14:18.

Paul’s hope to serve the Lord at this church forms the frame of his prayer.  That hope is the crux of his longing.  His longing is clear.  Again, prayer is terribly intimate, and Paul is sharing his most intimate self.

I was engaged once before I was engaged to Jill.  I think of the difference between my engagement to that woman, and to my Jill.  I knew to wait sexually, and did for both.  No difference.  I knew I would serve the Lord when engaged to both.  I knew that supporting each woman’s gifts was important.  I had no idea how much I needed to forge ahead as a man of God for Jill.  But I then sensed something deeper, far more wrenching working in me because of this woman, this Jill.  I yearned to see our hopes become real with her.  I had to see her hopes become real land and trips for our sons.  I prayed differently.  I prayed for another, this Jill and even prayed for her first.  I sometimes prayed more fervently for her than myself and only then did I start to see what Paul says here.  I longed to see Jill’s hopes come true.  I longed to see Jesus’ hopes for Jill come true!  Paul wants Christ’s best for these people he hopes to meet!

If my hopes for you are not God’s highest hopes for you, then I’m wind milling.  If God’s audacious plans for you are not possible in Christ’s power, then I mutter formulas, not prayers for you. 

Do you hear Paul?  His highest hope is for God to harvest more souls through him with these people.  He knows that alongside these dear Romans, whose faith buzzed throughout Paul’s world, they will harvest souls for God in Rome.  And they will build each other up! 

Do you hear him?  Not only must we nudge each other, and remember each other.  Not only must we pray and pray as part of our daily discourse.  Not only must we yearn to see our prayers answered and serve toward our prayers’ answers.  We must hope and pray Christ’s highest for each other and remind each other of the same!  I must not fail to let you hear my best for you. 

Do you know why?  The God of Earth and Heaven rested the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham’s prayers (Genesis 18:16-33).  God left the outcome of a battle with the Amalekites in Moses’ prayers (Ex. 17:8-13).  In Ezekiel 22:23-31 God was willing to show mercy to His people in answer to one intercessor, and finding no one, He poured out His wrath.  God responded to Nehemiah’s prayers to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and did so on a Persian king’s nickel!  Repeatedly God’s providence responded to His people’s interceding prayers.  What happened, and what did not happen were consequences of God’s people’s prayers—or lack of them!  My prayers are not strong.  God’s strong power is unleashed in answer to my prayers for you!  Do I misuse Paul’s words?  Then why did Jesus insure His intercession for the disciples and us recorded in the John, chapter 17?  I must not fail to let you hear my prayers for you.

Two Men

Two men are sitting at the breakfast bar (we call it the aircraft carrier) in the gray drizzle of this day. 

One is a soldier, the other a painter.  One is younger, the other a child of the sixties.  

Both have traveled far more than Jill and I put together: Europe and her off-the beaten-paths places – Nepal, the Hindu Kush and some of the ‘smaller peaks’ there.

They can each tell their stories compellingly, articulately.  Jill weeps quietly at some of the stories.

They use Google Earth to view homes, the train station, pubs, galleries in Brighton, England.  We watch how the younger has transformed one small home in Brighton since the passing of his mother.

The painter shows in galleries, the soldier has an adventure business and aspires to be a stunt man.  

Both are tall, the older has white hair where he had blonde before, and he explains to the younger that his grandfather had red hair as does he.  

They are father and son. 

Father with all his failings, and son for all his longings.  They are tentatively, poignantly reaching to 

Reaching to touch each other after a gap, an abyss of thirty missed years.  

And I am pushed to see that every relationship that we have that is restored or that endures does so as Miracle, and nothing less. 

And I am stunned to think, as one friend pointed out, how many, many times this is being multiplied (and not even attempted to play out) when we treat our bodies as our own as if we will never answer to another, or to Another.  

The father is haltingly, sometimes painfully trying to answer to another man who came from his body, so many, many years ago.  

Maybe the best miracles always start this way, courage, uncertainty, admixture of pain and hope, and always a possibility.  Did God make us to always hope for the possibility that most seems like Home?

It’s all unfolding in my home because my wife has this courage, has this unwavering hope for possibilities that others scarcely dream.  You probably call that prayer.