Prayer: Praying For The Inarticulate Need

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Romans 8:26

Over a period of several years I witnessed to a prominent executive. One day he invited me to lunch. He offered no agenda, and so I didn’t ask for one.

After briefly covering news, sports, and weather, I asked him how things were going on his spiritual pilgrimage. I watched as deep-felt emotions welled up from the center of his soul, but he could not express them. Instead, moisture formed in the corners of reddening eyes. He knew his need was spiritual—that’s why we were having lunch together—yet his thoughts remained inarticulate.

Do you ever have difficulty finding words to express your deepest thoughts? Everyone has deep reflections, but sometimes we don’t command the language to express them verbally. Passion floods our emotions, but it comes in vague, inexpressible, muddled waves of incomprehensible thought. Words escape us. Our mouths open, but no words come out. The secrets of our hearts remain locked up.

This man wanted to say something to God, but he didn’t know where to begin. Further discussion revealed that thirty years had passed since he last prayed to God. When he had been a boy of twelve, his younger, eight-year-old brother contracted a virus and became deathly ill.

He prayed, “God, please, please make my little brother get well.” His brother died, and he had cried and cried and cried. He wept bitterly in following years, but the tears did not expunge his bitterness. “Why, God, why? Why didn’t you answer my prayer?”

Then he turned to me and said, “I want to believe, but I was so hurt that God didn’t spare my brother, I haven’t spoken to Him since. Now I want to, but I don’t know how—I don’t know where to begin.”

Have you ever been so overwhelmed by life that you didn’t even know where to begin praying? During the hard days—the days when troubles without number overtake us—all our Lord asks is that we come to Him. He makes no demands upon us. Rather, in His compassion, mercy, and gentle loving-kindness He entreats: “‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’” (Matthew 11:28).

But what do we say to Him? If we say nothing at all, He will understand our need perfectly. The inarticulate need that is still unknown to us is transparent to the Lord. We have scales over our eyes, but the living Lord knows what we need before we even ask. How does that work? When you are too weak to pray—too inarticulate—the Holy Spirit will pray for you. “We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26).

When you are too weak to pray, Jesus will pray for you, too. “Christ Jesus, who died…is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).

Can you imagine any prayer partners with better credentials? The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ both intercede for you in prayer. Not only so, but Their prayers are made in accordance with God’s will for you. “The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:27).

You have no unknown needs. The Father knows everything about you. “‘For your Father knows what you need before you ask him’” (Matthew 6:8). The Father knows, and the Holy Spirit intercedes for you, and Jesus intercedes for you. The loving, living God is working out the purpose of His will in you.

There will be days when—depressed, discouraged, disheartened—you will go home early thinking, “I am so weary that I just don’t know how I can go on for one more day.” When life’s breakers crash down around you, how should you pray? Should you ask God for specifics? Yes, certainly, but what about those times when our problems are so overwhelming that we don’t even know where to begin?

Begin where you are. Come to Jesus. He will give you rest. Pray to the Father. Don’t be concerned if words don’t come. The Spirit Himself will intercede for you with groans that words cannot express. And Jesus, seated next to the Father, will also implore the Lord for your unknown need, whatever it is, however big it is.

When the weariness of the world wears you down, go to your praying place. The Spirit will meet you there. Jesus will meet you there. They will take you to the Father.

And in the dawn of tomorrow, a new day will bring renewed hope. The weariness will be replaced by the strength for another day. “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). In due time He will restore you to the joy of your salvation. In the meantime, let the Spirit and the Lord Jesus carry the load for you in prayer.

The man I lunched with still hasn’t negotiated the terms of surrender with Christ. He still wallows in bitterness. With great hope I still pray he will one day soon lower his head and say, “Dear God, I don’t know quite where to begin but, Lord, I need you…”

Life is scary. With my middle aged-ness has come the increasing awareness of how little control I have, and have had, over my affairs. Though I often remember a sense of power and autonomy surging through my mind, I can look back and confess that I have really had very little to do with what has happened in my life. I think I will pray more, especially when I don’t know where to begin.

I SURRENDER

Dear Lord, there are times when I simply have no idea about how to pray. I want to speak with You, but I don’t know where to begin; the right words elude me. Life is scary sometimes. My problems seem overwhelming sometimes. I come to You, Lord Jesus, seeking rest for my weary soul. I surrender my plans to You. I need You. Revive my soul with hope. Heal my brokenness. Amen.