Some Christians live a kind of rigid and joyless life because they have a skewed idea of who God is. To them, God is a cosmic kill-joy, a tyrannical judge who can't wait for the opportunity to punish or torture them for sins. So they trudge forward in their Christian life, seeing it as a grudging duty and not a growing delight.

But God is gracious, He gives His Spirit to help us in our troubles. The Holy Spirit is called our 'Comforter'. In the original Greek language, it is the word 'Parakletos'. 'Para' means beside. 'Kletos' comes from the word 'kaleo', meaning 'to call'. So the Holy Spirit is our Parakleto - the person or God called to be beside us to help us.

In secular Greek, the word 'parakletos' is often applied to a lawyer or an advocate, who stands beside his client and pleads his case. Just as every lawyer pleads for his client, so the Spirit comes to help us and pleads our case, especially in the place of prayer. Romans 8:26 says, "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." Let us thank God for His help and grace. Let us then look to His Spirit to be our perfect help in our journey here on earth!