Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans……. Roman 8:26)
I’ve discovered there are times in our lives when we cannot pray for ourselves. Sometimes, at least in my life, I have been too sick to pray for myself.
During those times, like recently while I was hospitalized, I realized that I wasn’t able to pray. I was calling Him but I wasn’t really having a conversation with Him. Just calling on His name and knowing that He was near seemed to be enough.
I remember another time in my life when I was so ill all I could say was, “Thank You Jesus for helping me”, over and over. I was in the hospital emergency room with a collapsed lung after a terrible wreck. I had never had such pain. I asked my Daddy, “Why won’t Jesus help me?” Daddy said, “just say, thank You Jesus for helping me, He is helping you”.
So during this recent illness and hospitalization that was brought to my remembrance. I began to repeat those words again. It is all I could say. It is all I could do. I knew others were praying for me and I knew that the Holy Spirit was interceding for me. What a blessing. What a comfort to know. The joy of knowing this peace surrounded me even during a time of intense illness.
I have realized this is why we as Christians are to pray for each other. We never know when others are unable to pray for themselves. It is an incredible gift that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and we can totally trust Him to do that. It is also important that we as Christians pray for the sick. We too, are to intercede for them.
Prayer is an awesome and powerful gift we can give to each other. No ribbons or bows, no costly overpriced flowers or balloons, not even words said out loud to each other—but a cry to God interceding for family and friends when they have no language but a cry.
