Scripture(Romans 8:26,27) Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Observation
The Spirit helps us pray--He doesn't do our praying for us or without us: He won't intercede for us with His deep groanings unless we let Him use our voices and hearts. We groan inwardly, too (verse 23), as we long to fully experience the completeness of God's redemptive plans for us. Therefore, our longings and desires are the Spirit's gift to help us overcome the pains caused of our moral and relational growth (verse 17), the futility of our misguided flights for freedom (verses 20-21), the urges of our still unredeemed flesh (verse 23), and the weakness of our impoverished thinking (verse 26). With the Holy Spirit giving both strength, voice, and sound to our heart's longings, our imaginations are no longer inbred by our circumstances and our hopes no longer paralyzed by our sight. We can actually pray, now, because the Holy Spirit imparted within us His own longings and groanings, and we get to voice them together.
Application (Personal)
Instead of hiding or withholding myself, I yield my whole being to the Holy Spirit. In Him, I find courage to explore my dreams and desires instead of suffocating them because of prior failures. In His strength, I trust that God's visions for me are not too good to be true. Again, the truths that Paul describes in this chapter are filling me with fresh, ecstatic hopes ... and even the very dullness of my mind, my slowness in apprehending these concepts, gives me hope in the certainty of better things afoot as I move deeper into the fullness of God's love.
Application (Psychological)
Our longings, dreams, and desires are an untapped psychological resource. That's odd to say in light of Freud's and Jung's explorations of dreams. That's odd to say in light of the influence of Solution-Focused Therapy with its focus on problem solving to meet personal goals and dreams. It's odd to say in light of addiction counselors working to define the payoff that addicts hope to gain from their addictive behaviors. This psychological commonality points to the greater truths that the Holy Spirit expressed here. Far more deeply than clinicians or anyone have capacity to express, we long for the existential fulfillment of God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. As helpful as our psychological models and interventions are, they serve us best by pointing us to Christ.
Prayer
Lord, how wonderful it is to imagine--to finally realize--that You buried Your good plans for me deep within my own longings. Those things that seemed too good to hope for have their source in You. Amazing. No wonder creation longs for the redemption of our bodies. No wonder we groan as we eagerly await the revelation of Your completed works in our lives. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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