When I don't know how to pray....

Praying is something I do regularly and frequently.  I am not talking about a formal time when I sit down with prayer requests and check them off like items on a list.  I am talking about the way I live life.  As the day goes along, and I am faced with decisions, I silently ask for God’s guidance.  As people with needs come to my mind, I try to discipline myself to turn my thoughts of them into prayer for them.  All of that comes easily to me since I have been practicing it for decades.

But there are prayers that do not come easily.  Agonizing thoughts that come from the depths of my soul.  Friends or family may be in the throes of disease or difficulty…especially when the difficulty is of their own making, resulting from their own bad choices.  Then I simply don’t know what to say to God.  I don’t know what to ask for.  I may plead a generic, “Oh, help them!” but that doesn’t seem adequate.  I recognize that I do not possess the wisdom to ask for something specific.  I don’t have His mind.  Don’t know His plan.  Certainly, I can pray “thy will be done.”  But, that may not ease the painful struggle in my mind and heart.

When I find myself in that state, I have learned to repeat over and over, “Thank you for the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 8:26 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.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

I have found that by repeating my gratefulness for the Holy Spirit, the turmoil within me subsides.  I rest in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit knows God’s will, because he is one with God, and yet knows my intents and can express them when all I can do is cry out.

I am sharing this, because I have recently talked to other believers who find themselves having no idea how to pray for someone they love.  If you find yourself in that situation, I encourage you to just start expressing thankfulness that we have been given the Holy Spirit as a comforter and intercessor.