The Spirit and Prayer | Romans 8:14-30
Brad O’Dell | June 1, 2025

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Romans 8. Romans 8 is where we’re going to be this morning. This morning we are looking at, in this series on the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit’s work in prayer, and so we’ll be looking at just a few of the chunks of Romans 8, and I’ll show you how we’ll progress through that in a second.

As we bring up the topic of prayer, I want to speak to what I think is likely a number of us here in the congregation. I would include myself in this to a degree when the topic comes up, and who what I want to speak to right here at the outset are those who are currently discouraged by your prayer life. Maybe you’re often tired, your brain is a bit frazzled. You find it difficult to concentrate, and you feel like you just didn’t get it that time, or you’re not praying very well.

Maybe some of you, when it comes to prayer, your belief has begun to waver a bit, and you’re not quite sure that prayer works, or at least not the way you’re praying. It’s not working the way you would expect.

Maybe there are those of you who, multiple times in your Christian walk, you’ve come to these seasons where the Lord’s put it on your heart, “Hey, I need to pray more. I know I need to pray; I don’t have a good rhythm of it. I’m disciplined in so many other areas of my life, but I don’t have any type of disciplined approach to prayer. I’m going to lock that in; this is going to be my year. This is going to be my season where I do this.” You’ve made some commitments, but you find that those commitments didn’t quite stick, and you’re pretty disappointed in yourself from all the times you’ve made that commitment and faltered.

Maybe there are some who don’t really know what to say in prayer. You start praying and you kind of just get the impression that, “I don’t think I’m doing this right. I’m not sure if I know what to say. Some people seem to be pretty good at it; I’m not sure if I’m very good at it.”

Maybe there are just a lot of us who for some reason when prayer comes up there’s just a little bit of shame that immediately shows up, when the topic comes up.

I want to just say to you out there who might be in this position: Hey, take heart. Almighty God, the Holy Spirit, is your help in this area of prayer. Even while you are struggling, he is working it all for your good in your Christian life, and even when you feel pretty inadequate, the Spirit is at work to secure you in the Father’s love for you. Even when you feel pretty stuck and stagnant, and you’re just not really making much progress in this area, the Spirit is still working, and he is completing your salvation, and he is making you more like Jesus, even through those difficult moments.

That’s the message that we’re going to see right here in Romans 8 this morning, and I pray it’s encouraging to your heart. So read with me. We’re going to be in Romans 8:14-30, and then I’ll show you how we’ll work through it in a second. Starting in verse 14, it says this:

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

“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. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

There’s a lot in this passage of Scripture, but we’re going to focus mainly just on the Spirit’s work in prayer as it comes up in this. I’m actually going to start in the verse 27-30 area. I think that’s kind of the foundation of the thought that Paul is presenting related to the Spirit’s work in prayer. Then we’re going to circle back, hit verses 14-16, and then hit the parts in between. You can see the outline there on the screen.

Before we kick into it, I’d just like to direct your attention to a couple of helpful books that are threaded through the sermon, and it would be difficult for me to give credit to every single thought that comes up. So these were very instrumental. Sometimes as a pastor our main role is as the one who acquires good resources. We’re not gurus. We have not arrived and we are calling you to the place of enlightenment that we have arrived at—we are fellow travelers on the journey with you, trying to grow in these disciplines, trying to be encouraged in them, and I very much feel myself in that place this morning on this topic of prayer. This is something I really want to grow in as well.

These two books are very helpful. First, doctrinally on the Holy Spirit and understanding some of those things in relation to how the Spirit works within the Trinity: a good book, pretty accessible, on the left there, and then this other one, A Praying Life. It’s one of those very practical books, and a lot of the practical application of the sermon is going to come from some things that I found personally helpful and encouraging in that book. I hope they do the same for you this morning.

1. The Spirit Conforms Us into the Image of Jesus

First point: I want to say from verses 27-30 that as we pray, the Spirit conforms us into the image of Jesus. That’s the first thing we see. As we pray, the Spirit is conforming us into the image of Jesus. We see that in Romans 8:27-30. It says,

“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. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

That's the idea. The Spirit is interceding for us in prayer. If you’re not familiar with that word “intercession” or “interceding”, it just means to pray for another person, to kind of stand in the gap and represent someone to another. That’s what intercession is. So this is the idea that the Spirit is in us, and he is praying through us and he’s praying toward a certain end, and that is the will of God.

We get to see in the next verses, what is the will of God? Well, we know that for those who are called according to the will of God, all things are working together for their good. And what is that purpose? It’s that we would be conformed into the image of his Son. That’s what God’s doing in our lives as Christians. He is at work conforming us into the image of Jesus.

I just want us to see that this is kind of the big work of the Spirit in prayer. This is the foundational thing. This is the thing that’s happening all the time. He is in us; he prays for us, such that God’s sanctifying power—that is, God’s power to complete our salvation—is at work in us to make us more like Jesus.

To say it another way, the Spirit and prayer primarily does what he is already doing in the lives of believers at all times. He is sanctifying, he is purifying, he is completing our salvation.

We see, as we study the work of the Trinity and how it works in salvation, that this is kind of the field of the Spirit’s work. Every member of the Trinity…you can’t draw lines between their work and salvation; they are all united in every work of salvation, every external work; that’s the kind of theological language of the trinity. They’re always united in that. However, Scripture does kind of put certain things in the categories of individual members of the Trinity, so we can kind of understand God a little more fully and how he works. What we tend to see is that the field of completion or consummation or finalization or perfection, the field of agency, where Spirit is bringing things about, right, that is the field of the Spirit. Usually in the Father we see these actions of origination, of creation, of proclamation. Then in the Son we see accomplishment. He goes and accomplishes the Father’s will. Then the Spirit is now applying that work to the people of Jesus and applying it in the world to bring about everything that Jesus has accomplished.

The phrase is: things come from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. It’s a really important formulation that helps us kind of think about the Trinitarian language of the Bible. Things come from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.

In our response to God, it works the opposite direction. We operate by the Spirit, and that is through the Son, and we pray in worship to the Father. That’s the overwhelming New Testament model for how these things work.

What I want to say that for is just to say, that’s what we see here in this passage of Scripture. Right? We see the Father has predestined us, that Jesus has accomplished our salvation, and that the Spirit is now completing that salvation; and part of that work is his intercessory work to conform us into the image of Jesus.

So, here’s where I want this to apply to our lives a little more practically. When we are praying, I think something happens, and that is, we are inhabiting a story. We are inhabiting the story of our own lives as we understand them, right?

We have a general plot to our lives: where we are at, where we’ve come from, where we’re going. We have some difficulties that we see in our lives and the possible resolutions of those things, like you would see in a story. We have good characters and bad characters, as we think they might be presenting in our lives. We have some ideas of what a happy ending to the story might look like. We’re inhabiting a story.

I think as we pray, what we’re doing is we’re kind of bringing our story to God and asking him to work in our story as we understand it. We say, “Lord, these are the things I’m involved in. These are the things I’m about right now. This is where my mind and heart are. This is what my schedule looks like. This is what I think I need. These are the things that I desire. Here are the things that I’m really thankful for because I see you’re working. Here are the things that are going on that I'm struggling to figure out how to be thankful for, but I understand that they’re in your control and I’m trying to understand those.” Right? We are bringing our story and interpreting our story, talking out our story before God as we know it.

I think that’s really good. You have a heavenly Father who loves to hear from you. He loves to speak into the practical areas of your life. He wants to be walking with you in relationship, and he’s given you the Spirit to pray in you and through you along that journey, as you understand the Father’s work in your life.

However, I think it’s really important to just remember this: that we are not ultimately the authors of our story. We’re not the authors of our story. We are not all-sovereign. We are not all-powerful. We did not declare all of our days before creation started. The Father did. The Father is the author of our story, and I think we just have to remember that we have a pretty limited knowledge and a pretty limited understanding of the exact contours of how our story is really going to play out in this life. Sometimes, I think we see it with some pretty great clarity, and then sometimes what we recognize is that we were way off. Our expectations were just not not in line with how God was taking us on this journey. We didn’t see that right turn, we didn’t see that cliff; we didn’t even see these good things. We never would have foreseen them. God is the one who’s authoring our story.

I think it’s okay that we don’t see it with clarity, even in the midst of our prayer. It’s a comfort to know that God the Spirit is interceding for us so that God’s story would be manifest, even though we don’t see that story clearly ourselves.

I think what we need to see is that Scripture is pretty clear about what the overall story is for our lives as Christians, and that is this: that we would know God and love him, that we would grow in our knowledge and love of him, such that we trust him completely the way Jesus did when he walked this earth, and that we would find our total joy and satisfaction in him alone as Jesus does. That’s the grand story that the Lord is writing in all of our lives. I think we see some of the language that speaks to that in the verses we just read.

How that will transact in our individual lives is going to be very different for each one of us, and it’s difficult to really know how we’re going to get there. We’re probably greatly unaware of the exact nature of it.

So, here’s where I want this to land home. As we are praying, we are inhabiting a story. I think as we pray, what I want us to do is recognize this intercessory work of the Spirit to pray for the Father’s story to transact in our life. And what I want us to do is actually develop an eye for your Father’s story in your life. Develop an eye for your Father’s story. Another way we could say it is, develop an ear for the Spirit’s prayer on your behalf as you’re praying. You’re not just coming and saying, “God, here I am as the author, and I’m telling you what needs to happen,” but I kind of step back and I’m perceiving. I’m trying to say, “God, what are you doing in my life, and why? I want to bring my heart into alignment with that.” Underneath it all, the Spirit is praying and he is interceding for you, and there’s a story for you to try to understand and catch as you go.

Here’s a good method that I think helps us do this a little bit more. It’s prayer journaling. It’s journaling our prayers. I know I bring up the idea of journaling and some of you are just like, “Ugh, gross.” Right? Some of us are not natural journalers. What I’m not suggesting is writing out all of your prayers the way the Puritans did. If you have that in you, go do it. However, a lot of us maybe just keep a journal out as you pray and just be writing down some observations, writing down some thoughts, writing down some questions; that sort of thing. It’s an interactive style of prayer, and having something concrete in front of you just helps you do this.

Here’s what journaling does. Here’s how God created us as human beings who think in language and process in language. It does help us just process what we are thinking, what we are talking about. It helps us sit in it a little bit more and reflect on it a little bit more. So it’s a helpful tool to that end. A couple other things. It’s relational a little bit more. As you are journaling, you are asking more questions and you’re writing down, “Hey, what does God seem to be saying here?”

Here’s how Miller said it in his book. I thought these questions were helpful for when you sit down to journal as you pray. Think about these questions: How am I doing? What’s coming at me right now in life? How am I doing emotionally? Am I happy, sad, thankful, discouraged, angry, frustrated? What’s going on? Take a self-assessment. “Where am I at?”

Then, what is God saying to me? What does the word of God say?

Listen: Just journal out what comes to your mind as you pray through these things and wrestle through them with the Lord. It's not Scripture. You’re not writing it in stone. You’re just trying to process it. Some of it might be accurate, some of it might not be, but you’re stepping into that relationship. You’re trying to develop the ear to hear.

Here’s the other thing that’s good about journaling. It kind of makes us slow down and focus in our prayer. Some of us are disappointed in our prayer lives because we think the main way we’re going to get some good prayer in is while we’re driving, while we’re cooking dinner for our kids, while we’re having a conversation with our spouse that we’re not that keyed into, so we’re kind of processing some things in the back here; you know, while we’re doing other yard work. I would encourage you, do be praying like that. There’s a scriptural element that we’re supposed to be praying unceasingly and talking to the Lord continuously. But some focused prayer is also really important.

I would like you to think about this: how surprising it is that Jesus, who is completely full of the Spirit and who had an eternal relation to the Father when he was on this earth, he oftentimes had to get away to desolate places by himself to focus in prayer to the Father. If Jesus needed to get away to focus in prayer, I think we do as well. Journaling is something that we can’t do while we’re doing all the other things, and it helps us focus a little bit more, and it might help us key into our Father’s story in our life.

2. The Spirit Assures Us that We Are Beloved Children

Next point, Romans 8:14-16: as we pray, the Spirit assures us that we are beloved children. We’re beloved children. Read with me verse 14.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”

We’ll stop there; we’ll pick up the last part of that verse going into the next point.

The Spirit here in verse 15 is called the Spirit of adoption. It’s the idea that he is trying to give us an identity as true children of God, that the very love that the Father has for his own son is now a love that we receive just as well as adopted children of the Father.

The language “sons” there, if that throws you off, some of you automatically are understanding that correctly and some of you maybe have not had this explained. The Bible speaks in “sons” language, that gendered language, usually when the idea of an inheritance is in view. So in the ancient Near East, it’s the sons who would inherit things from their father in that patriarchal society, especially the oldest son. He would inherit the chief of what the father has. So when it has the language of sons, it’s not trying to be gendered and exclude women from this, of course; it’s trying to indicate the status that we actually have as God’s children, that we are heirs. We are heirs of everything that Christ is an heir of, which is an astounding truth. But that is the nature of the adoption that we have as children of God.

What we see here is that it’s not just that this is a reality that we can look forward to, but right now, the relationship that you have with the Father is one that can mirror some of the relationship that Jesus had with his Father as well. That’s what we see in verse 15, where it says that the Spirit of adoption is given to us, and it’s by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

The word Abba was a word that was very commonly used in Jesus’ day. It was the word that children often used in Jewish society for their dads. That was their relational, intimate term that they use for their dads. So, it was a very common word. However, almost never would it be used by a religious Jew to pray to his heavenly Father. That seems too intimate. It seems too presumptive. That’s too familiar of a term to use of the Father. However, it is a word that Jesus gives to us to use. It’s the word that we see Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane before he goes to the cross.

Then we see here in this passage that it is the words that the Spirit gives us as the children of God to be able to pray to the Father and know that he loves us with the very love that he has for his Son.

Interestingly, a very similar phrase comes up in Galatians 4:6. There, it’s stated just slightly differently, and I think it’s kind of interesting. There it says that “God has sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” So in Galatians 4:6 it’s the Spirit who is in us crying, “Abba, Father,” almost on our behalf. Here, the Spirit is in our lives and he is equipping us, then, to be the ones who cry, “Abba, Father.”

I think we see something about the Spirit’s work in seeing both of those iterations of it in Scripture. Fred Sanders—I pointed his book out—said it like this:

“When the Father sends his Spirit into us, the cry “Abba” sounds forth from our innermost depths as a human word spoken from our deepest hearts, and simultaneously, as the same word from the heart of God. That is how deeply the Spirit dwells within the redeemed. The one who is in God by his eternal nature is now also in us by grace.”

I think that’s just astounding to know the closeness of the relationship that you can have with the Father. The very one who is in God by his eternal nature, in the depths of God, is now in the depths of us in the form of the Spirit, by God’s grace. And he’s praying for us, he’s interceding for us, he’s helping us, he’s assuring us that we truly are beloved children of our Father.

It says that in verse 16: “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

I think as we pray, this is what we’re supposed to see. There is something really deep and significant going on. I know sometimes when we’re praying, we’re like, “Man, is this doing anything?” Here from the Scriptures we see that there is something very deep and significant going on, that the Spirit is slowly communicating to the very center and depths of our souls and convincing us that the Father really does love us completely and he loves us without reservation, and like a child who knows that their parents love him, we can come to him with anything.

I think that’s what my application is going to be, and I got a lot of this from Miller’s book, as I put on the screen. It’s just this: sometimes to enter into this heart disposition before the Lord and to receive the love of the Father, we have to stop acting like we’re secure, mature adults who have everything figured out on our own and we’ll talk to God kind of as an equal, you know, when we have a nice polished statement to bring. And a lot of us, we get stuck in prayer this way. We know that we don’t have to clean ourselves up to come to God and salvation, and that’s a chief element of our proclamation of the gospel, that it is free grace. It’s not about what we do, but it’s about what Jesus has done, and we just come to freely receive. But then in our prayer lives, it’s almost like we operate differently. We have to kind of bring some type of polished version of ourselves. We kind of are worried about doing things right. I have some elements of what a wrong way to pray is, what a right way to pray is, here are the right things to prioritize in my prayer, here are the things that I’m not supposed to really prioritize that much—all these things. Right? We kind of get caught up in this, and then we get discouraged because we start to pray that way, but then our minds kind of go to just our daily worries or our daily distractions or our daily joys. It could be something frivolous like golf. Like, we start thinking about our golf round and we really beat ourselves up. “What is wrong with me? I’m supposed to be praying to the Almighty, and now I care about golf,” and we get discouraged, honestly. It leads us to not really come to the Lord in prayer.

This is what I want to say. To pray like a child is to pray the way a child would come to their parents and just start talking to their parents about their life. Think about how a child comes and speaks to their parents. When children want something, they don’t really question themselves and try to make a presentation—I’m talking about young children—they just come and they ask. They ask brazenly and they just ask repeatedly.

“Hey, Dad, can we have some ice cream?”

“Well, maybe later, bud.”

“Okay, can we have ice cream, like, in five minutes?”

“We’ll see, bud.”

“Hey, Dad. It’s been a couple minutes. Have you thought about the ice cream again? I don’t know if you knew that I wanted some ice cream. Are we going to go get some ice—we can go get some ice cream or we can get the ice cream in the freezer—”

They just go on and on! What happens? Sometimes you’re be like, “Alright. You know what? You have chicken to eat, but I’m going to give you some ice cream because I need to have a conversation,” and I just kind of give in. Right?

That’s how the children ask. They aren’t, you know, wrestling with themselves. They just come. They come brazenly. They think, “Hey, my parents love me, and I can talk to my parents and tell them what I want.”

What’s interesting is that Jesus, when he’s talking about prayer in the gospels, he actually gives a couple of parables that communicates something about this, people who are acting like children. He says, “Pray like this.”

The first one is the one with the persistent widow. Do you guys remember this? There’s a persistent window. She goes to a judge day after day, and she essentially harasses him, just saying, “Give me justice, give me justice, give me justice for the situation.” And he’s an unjust judge, but it says even the unjust judge eventually will say, “Okay, great. Here's your claim of justice. I will give it to you so that you stop pestering me.” And Jesus turns around and says, “That’s how you should pray.”

Isn’t that really interesting? That’s the very way that we’d be like, “That’s kind of problematic.” And it is kind of problematic to act like that in life. I’m not saying go act like that—but there’s something about the boldness that we come to our Father with, that we just say, “He cares, and he will put up with me because he loves me, and I’m just going to keep coming to him.”

The other example is the parable of a man who at midnight has someone show up at his house, and he wants to bake bread for this person, so he starts hammering on his neighbor’s door at midnight while his whole family is sleeping. He won’t stop hammering on the door until the guy comes and he gives him some loaves of bread, so he can give it to his friend who’s coming to town. That's kind of how a child would act, you know? They would just keep banging on the door, keep yelling out, and they don’t quite get that they’re supposed to, like, stop at some point, that this isn’t inappropriate.

But then Jesus says, “You see how that’s the case? That’s how you’re supposed to be with your Father. That’s how you’re supposed to be in prayer.” It’s pretty interesting.

The thing about children is, they kind of have no compunction in talking about also just whatever’s on their mind. If you’re ever with other adults and you’re just talking, eventually, sometimes you just hear like a voice going on about something, and you start to get distracted and you’re like, “Oh, hey, bud. What’s up?” And he’s in the middle of a story. He just came, and he thought, “I’m going to tell people what’s on my mind, what I’ve been doing, what I’ve been drawing, the story I’ve been telling myself, how we’ve been playing,” and they just go on and on and on.

As parents, sometimes we have to teach them, “Hey, you know, let’s wait a second.” But we’re never mad at them for wanting to come to us and talk about what’s going on in their little lives. Right? If they come up to us and say, “Hey, Dad, can I talk to you about something?” We're always like, “Yeah, what do you want to talk about?” Are they things that we really care about? Not usually. You know, usually they’re things that are just like, “That’s really interesting. I didn’t quite understand it all.” But we’re just happy that they brought their little hearts to us and wanted to talk to us about what’s going on in their lives, and it gives us a chance to talk with them about what’s important to them, and we love that.

I think some of those ideas are supposed to come into our minds about how we pray. Sometimes we just get stuck, we don’t know where to start, and we think we need to come with a pretty polished version of ourselves. To come to God like a child, to know him as our heavenly Father who loves us, is just to say, “I’m going to pray to him about whatever’s on my mind.”

I’m going to come boldly. I’m not going to start checking myself. Maybe my mind scattered. Well, I’m just going to bring my scattered mind to the Lord, and I’ll chase it where it will. Maybe I started praying about my children and my worries for them and my prayers for them, but then my mind went to something else at work that I just can’t get over. Instead of shutting that down and trying to concentrate and beat myself up, I’m just going to say, “Okay, I’ll talk about what’s at work.”

You notice this with children. Sometimes in the middle of a conversation, they’ll just redirect their attention and they’ll go over here. What do you do as a parent? You adjust and you’re like, “Oh, okay. Yeah. Let’s talk about that thing.”

I think something like that is supposed to come into our walks with the Father. Right? He loves us as a Father. We can come to him not completely cleaned up, and he loves us and he cares for us, and he’ll meet us where we’re at. The Spirit of adoption is in our hearts, giving us an understanding of our Father as dear, as intimate, as loving. He has an intimate love for us the way he has for his Son. You know what? It’s okay if it’s not polished. It’s okay if it’s a little distracted. It’s okay if you don’t even track it yourself—because why? The Spirit is your help. The Spirit is interceding for you. He’ll sort it out if it needs to be sorted. He knows you deeper than you even know yourselves, and he’ll bring that to the Father. He’ll bring it to the Son, who’s at the right hand of the Father interceding for you. That’s how the Spirit works in prayer.

3. The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness and Suffering

Last point: as we pray, the Spirit helps us in our weakness and our suffering. This is really what Romans 8:17-26 are focusing on. Isn’t that really interesting, that after these things we just talked about, in the middle of verse 17 it just makes this turn: “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” It’s a really interesting transition right there in the middle. We don’t expect it unless we’ve read Romans 8 a lot.

Then Paul goes into talking about suffering. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time aren’t worth comparing with the glory.” Then he talks about how creation is groaning as if it’s in childbirth, the pain of childbirth, because it is still under the corruption that is in the world because of sin. And it says, not only creation is groaning, waiting for the new creation, the revealing of the sons of God, but we ourselves who have the firstfruit of the Spirit, we’re also groaning under the condition of our continued corruption, under the condition of our flesh that’s still broken, under the condition of still being in sin. And it’s in us, and it’s also out there, and we’re affected by it. And we’re waiting for this day where we finally have our salvation complete, and we will be with our Lord in the new creation. We have these groanings.

This is what it says in verse 26. “So the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words.” I think the idea of groanings there is something of what is in the previous passage; the same kind of groanings in creation and the groanings that are spoken about already, that these are aspects of our life where we are discouraged. We’re experiencing corruption. We’re experiencing suffering. We’re yearning to be free from these things that afflict us in many ways.

You see, we all have weaknesses. Weaknesses is a pretty broad category, but we all have weaknesses, living in this fallen creation.

Your weakness might be your particular battle with sin and your particular battle with pride, however that manifests. That’s a weakness. It might look like a chaotic life situation right now that is just a little outside of your control and you realize, “Man, I can’t do this on my own. I’m trying to keep the balls in the air, but they’re dropping.” It's a weakness. You have limitations; you’re a human being, and you’re not perfect, and you have some weaknesses in your life.

It might look like a physical ailment in your life that has a carryover effect into your spiritual health, into your mental health, into your emotional health. And you’re trying to work on those areas, but this physical ailment really just seems to be making it so much harder. There’s a weakness in your life.

We have weaknesses associated with our personalities. Just like you have inherent strengths because of your personality, you have inherent weaknesses, just in who you are. We have inherent weaknesses that come from our developmental background, whatever that might be. We all have families we were raised in who weren’t perfect. We all have communities we were raised in that weren’t perfect. We all have socioeconomic cultural factors that have played into us that provide some strengths and some wonder and some beauty, and then they also have particular weaknesses that are associated with it.

We have weaknesses in our life, and as we pray in the Spirit, yearning for the day where all this will be behind us and these weaknesses will be healed and we’ll be perfect in the Lord—as we pray, the Spirit is helping us in our weakness.

Now, Scripture actually seems to be pretty clear that weakness is really the prerequisite for the Spirit’s power to actually be working and manifest in our lives. This is how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 12. He says, “Jesus said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” Right? Paul says, “Therefore I will boast all all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.”

You see that causal relationship? “I will boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I think in prayer, we need to see prayer as this: prayer is the confession that you can’t do life on your own. It’s a confession that you can’t do life on your own. You can’t do it all. Life is bigger, you have weaknesses, you have tiredness, you have some difficulties; you need help, you need provision, you need wisdom, you need abilities beyond yourself.

I think we know that the saints who have some of the sweetest relationships with the Lord and have the power of the Lord at work in their lives, bringing a peace beyond understanding, these are the saints who know that they have deep weaknesses, and so they’re on their knees constantly in prayer. I think that’s what we’re supposed to see here, that as we are aware of our weaknesses, it makes us hit our knees in prayer. I can’t do it on my own, right? We can’t make sure that our kids have a heart that is redeemed and that loves the Lord above all else and doesn’t get caught up in all the false idols of the world that would try to destroy them. We can’t affect their hearts. Only God can affect their hearts. When we know that it’s outside of our control, it makes us hit our knees and makes us pray and pray and pray for them.

We know that we can’t keep ourselves pure in our relationship with our spouse. We can in lots of artificial ways, but ultimately, God has to make our heart such that we walk in purity before him and before our spouse. So we hit our knees and we say, “God, you have to hold me fast.”

We know that we can’t be the ones who figure out all of our salvation. We can’t save ourselves from sin. We can’t redeem ourselves. That’s all the work of God. So when we realize that we have these weaknesses in our lives, we hit our knees in prayer, and we say, “God, you have to do it. You have to do it.” Prayer is a confession that we can’t do life on our own. We do that in our weaknesses, and that’s what the Spirit is here to do for us.

Beyond that, we all experience suffering. I think that’s in the passage, and I thought Miller’s language for this was really good. He said, “You know what suffering is? It doesn’t mean that the Father has lost control of his story in your life. It’s actually a testament to the fact that he actually is the one in control, because suffering is a gospel story.”

Suffering is a gospel story. That was a helpful phrase as I read. You know, in the gospel, it’s death that comes before resurrection. We all want resurrection experiences. We want victory. We want success. We want to be over these things. We want to be able to have it in the rear-view mirror. God’s doing that work in our lives. He’ll get us there in small ways now, in big ways ultimately; but death comes before resurrection. Suffering comes before exaltation. Humility comes before glory—maybe humiliation; Jesus experienced it.

I think, as is so often the case in our lives, to make us more like Jesus, and to reveal the idols of our hearts, to make us know our neediness, and to cling to God as our source, as our comfort, as our true joy, he needs to bring us through suffering and point us to himself, and let us find our all in all in him.

I think the New Testament is really clear on this front. I’m just going to rip through a few passages, and then we’ll apply this quickly.

Luke 24:26; Jesus says, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Road to Emmaus. These people are surprised at the resurrection. Jesus says, “Was it not necessary that the Christ would have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”

Paul picks up the thread in Philippians 3. Paul’s prayer is “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.” That’s what I’m about. I want to know Jesus! I want to know the power of his resurrection. Those are the promises I’m claiming. And then he goes on: “...and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” That’s a surprising change again.

Second Corinthians 4: “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that [there’s that causal relationship] the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

Again, in 2 Corinthians 4: “For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” What prepares us for the eternal weight of glory? It’s these momentary afflictions that we’re going through.

First Peter 4—this kind of sums it up. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that [again, the causal relationship] you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”

Suffering is part of living in a gospel story, and it means that the Lord is in control, we need not be surprised by this. We have a responsibility, though, to not check out when these things are happening. We don’t bail on it. We don’t demand that God’s story actually be the way we would want to play out. But we step back and we say, “God, what are you teaching me in your story? I’m trusting you with the journey.” And we’re called to, until we see the Lord in the new creation complete, we’re called to pray through it all. And the Spirit is here to help us as we pray.

So I think that’s just our job when we walk away from here today. What’s my job as I dwell on these things? Church, we have to just pray. We have to just pray. I know it’s hard. I know we get jammed. I know we get distracted. I know it’s tough for us to even know how to express what we’re feeling in the midst of some of these situations, but we give ourselves to it because we know the Spirit’s here, he’s helping, he’s accomplishing what I can’t. He is interpreting things, he’s interceding for me with these groanings that are too deep even for my words.

One thing that’s just helpful—quick little help—if you get stuck in prayer; sometimes when we’re in difficult situations we get stuck, we get jammed, we get confused. We maybe don’t even feel like praying, but we know we need to. One thing that really helps is, I’m going to recommend prayer cards, three by five cards. A list can be overwhelming; there’s a whole list of things and you get caught up in it. Maybe a list works for you, but prayer cards.

It’s one focus. You put it in front of you, you can start there. If you want to go to the next card, great. Go to the next card. Flip through them to where you find a card that you like; whatever. But have a card for your core kind of battles with sin, the core things you’re just asking the Lord for in your life. Maybe have a Scripture verse on there that you can pray as you do that, and just maybe write a few bullet points. Don’t have a lot of detail; a few bullet points. This, this, this, this. I know what they mean even if it’s not clear to anyone else.

Have one for your children. Have something you can pick up and say, “What are the long prayers I’m praying for my children?” I’m going to pick it up; it’s going to have my daughter’s name on it, it’s going to have my son’s name on it. It’s going to have a Bible verse on it. There are going to be a few things going on in their life.

Have one for your work situation. Have one for people in suffering. We always have these situations where we hear someone, they’re going through something and we’re like, “Oh, man, I’m so sorry. I’m going to be praying for you.” But we don’t have a good rhythm of prayer to actually pray for them. Have a card for people in suffering. Have a sweet verse on there that the God of all comfort will comfort them in all their suffering. That’s what you’re praying for people. Have a list of names with those situations, so that as you grab that card, you can actually just start working it in.

It helps you just get into prayer and get into this relational dynamic where the Spirit works at the depths of your being and the depths of God, and he brings you into a relationship with him, and he starts to intercede for you, for your salvation, and for your good in this relationship. I think those are helpful.

Church, just remember this—last thing I’m going to leave you with—prayer is spiritual warfare. It’s spiritual warfare. You know, one thing the enemy does not want in your life? He doesn’t want you to become more like Jesus. You know one thing your flesh doesn’t want? It doesn’t want to let go of the things that it finds so much satisfaction and comfort with. It doesn’t want those weaned away from it.

It’s warfare, but we have a great companion in the fight. Right? We have a great champion on our behalf. We have the Spirit with us in prayer. He is behind us, he is before us, he is beside us, he is contending alongside us in prayer. Let us give ourselves to prayer and see how the Spirit wins these battles in our lives and draws us into relationship with the Father a little bit more.

Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for your word. We thank you for the encouragement that we find there that really just blows our mind; that we, as we give ourselves in prayer with our stumbling words, with our distracted minds, with our selfish interests, we know that you are kind, that you love us with the heart of a Father, that you give us the Spirit to work in and under and through and around all of our prayers, to guide us towards your purposes, to lead us into the good that you have for us in Christ. God, we thank you for the astounding grace that you give us in our lives, and we ask that you would just let us rest in these things today; that we would take our eyes off ourselves; that we would come to you, start talking to you about what’s going on in our lives, and trust the Spirit to work your will into our lives as we give ourselves to it. Lord, we want to be a people of prayer. We want to be a people where the power of Christ is manifest in our lives. And so we want to be a people who bring our weakness to you and see you do astounding things through us for the glory of your name, and for the praise of you in your congregation. It’s in the matchless name of Jesus we pray together to the Father in the Spirit. Amen.