THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever not known how to pray or what to pray about?
READ TOGETHER.
Romans 8:26. And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
Christians talk a lot about prayer, and rightly so. Prayer is a very important part of being a Christian. God wants us to talk to him, and we should want to talk to God. But for many reasons, prayer is really tough for most of us. Maybe we don’t take the time to talk to God. Or maybe we forget to pray. Or maybe we are unsure that God actually wants us to pray.
Another reason that we don’t pray is that, as Paul says, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. Have you ever felt this way? I sure have. There are many things that are very obvious that God wants us to pray about. But the problem is that we are weak. Paul doesn’t mean that we are physically weak; he means that we are spiritually weak. Sometimes we are so upset, or so discouraged that we can’t even think about how to pray to God.
But that’s OK. Why? Because the Holy Spirit prays for us!
Like we’ve said many times, every Christian has the Holy Spirit living inside of them. He is God’s guarantee that one day we will be with God in Heaven. How do we know? Because God is already with us, inside of us. And even though the Holy Spirit is filling us up with all the good things of God (his love, joy, and peace), we still are very weak as human beings. So weak that we don’t even know how or what to pray to God about.
But the Holy Spirit always knows what to pray for. And the Holy Spirit is praying for you in your place. He is constantly talking to God the Father. He’s doing it right now! And he is especially talking to the Father for us when we are very sad, or upset, or even angry. That’s why Paul says that he is groaning for us.
Of course, this does not mean that we should stop trying to pray and just let the Holy Spirit do it for us. God loves us so much that he wants us to pray with the Holy Spirit. God is always OK with our imperfect prayers. Like a Father listening to their little child, God loves talking with us even when what we say to him isn’t said in the clearest or best way. The Holy Spirit is there to say it perfectly. Thank you Holy Spirit.
Because of the Holy Spirit we have God praying to God for us.
With the Holy Spirit we never have to worry about our prayers being perfect.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Have your kids practice lifting and carrying something that is heavy (or put heavy items into their backpack). Say: Imagine if you had to carry this around all day. What do we carry around that is heavy in our hearts (our feelings)? The Holy Spirit is always helping us carry heavy things by praying for us, especially when things are very hard.
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, I’m so glad the Holy Spirit prays for me, but keep helping me to pray to you more and more and better and better. Amen.
TLICfamily 