Daily Manna · Day 129 · May 9
Help for Weakness
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Romans 8:26 begins, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought." That sentence is a gift to anyone who has stood in a hospital corridor trying to pray. You get as far as the person's name, and then the words run out, and you stand there feeling useless.
Paul's Greek word for helpeth is built from three parts: to take hold of, together with, and on the other side. Picture two people lifting one heavy beam, one at each end. The Spirit is not cheering you on from far away. He takes some of the weight. And notice what Paul calls the weakness. He does not call it sin, or thin faith, or a lack of discipline. It is simply not knowing what to ask for. Paul even includes himself in that weakness when he says, "we know not."
Then read the next verse, because that is where the promise is finished. God, who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit, "because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." So the prayer that reaches the Father is more than the one you managed to put into good words. It is the prayer the Spirit carries for you, and He prays in line with the will of God.
So think of the worst praying you did this week. Maybe it was mostly silence, with one name said over and over. That prayer was not lost. The Spirit carried it, and it reached God complete.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 129 is Godly Sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10).