Romans – The Play Part 7 – Hurting Prayer: Romans 8, Groaning, and the Holy Spirit’s Intercession

He cannot condemn me in His praying to the Father. He is interceding for me with groanings that I cannot understand, nor fathom, nor comprehend. The New Testament did not record all the riches of God, but the Holy Spirit has recorded them.

There’s a lot the first-century believers knew that I’ve never been told, nor have you, but the Holy Spirit knows. And He knows, and He speaks to the Father. He inventories the real things in me. He inventories my spirit, and He inventories my heart. And He speaks with inutterable things – not words. And then He hears my prayer. He is the connection with the unseen in me and the unseen of God. He inventories me. And the ignorance that is in me, He overlooks, and gives expression, and fills in the gap between my ignorance in a moment of mad depression.

And He prays. In my pain, He prays. In your pain, He prays. And then He hears the Father. The Father who has made me a son of God, who has made you a son of God, who has redeemed you, who has set you free from the law of sin and death. The Father hears, and speaks, and prays.

And once more I’m sitting there, feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a West Texas canyon—and once more, the strains of heaven sing: “It is well, it is well with my soul.”

Dear child of God, we have gotten two looks at first-century praying. This is so different from the theology of prayer. Two things that we have learned in Romans 8 about praying.  One of them is: Daddy. The intimate, intimate relationship of a child is Daddy.

I said to you at the last meeting – I don’t think there’s one of you in this place that’s got enough nerve to call your Father Daddy. And yet there it is, right there, in plain praise: Abba, Father. Man, I hope those first-century Christians were clear on this, that they could come and say “Daddy” when they were hurting over the fact that they were not yet fully saved, that the body was yet unredeemed.

And now we get another one. And that is: with this unredeemed part of us – I don’t want to concentrate on that – in our unbelief, in our inability to comprehend all the riches of Romans 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8, and our just plain outright forgetfulness, our inability to remember what we are; the second thing we learn about prayer is: get in the presence of God and hurt. And feel pain. And let the Holy Spirit be that hurt, and be that pain, and be that groan, and be that prayer.

“Lord, I come to you and let my pain pray. I let my groan pray.
I let my emotions pray.  I let the Holy Spirit say to you things I cannot say.
Lord, I just sit in Your presence, with more riches and a higher standing with You that I can comprehend or lay hold of, and I’m going to sit here in Your presence.”

And then get up and go to that meeting, saints. (laughter)

Get up and put off your sackcloth, brother and sister, and know that you belong to millions and millions of believers who go through these same things. Get up and lift your head, and get your shoulders straight, and walk with dignity. You’re a child of God. And things ain’t half as bad as your feelings make you think they are.

“For He searches the heart.
He who searches the heart
Knows the mind of the Spirit.
For He intercedes
For the holy ones
According to the way God
Wants them to be interceded for.”

You cannot intercede for yourself, but oh brother, does God know. Does God know how to pray for you.