I want to share with you once again from the book of Romans. We are here not to be entertained. We are here to be instructed from scripture that we may be fair, and that we may be drawn nearer to Jesus Christ and to be drawn nearer to the Father. So if you have your bibles, turn with me to the book of Romans. And we'll be looking at Romans chapter 8 and just two verses this morning ~ 26 and 27. Romans 8 and verses 26 and 27. They are both here on the screen or you can look at them in your own bibles. Mark them down. Look at the words and may they be a blessing to your heart :
"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities (our weaknesses) : for we know not what we should pray for as we ought : but the Spirit itself (or the Spirit himself) maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

These verses teach us about the vital subject of prayer. Do you realize that prayer is probably one of the hardest things to do for a Christian? It is one of the most basic things of the Christian life, yet at the same time, it is also one of the hardest things in a Christian's life. I am not saying it is hard to say a prayer. It's easy to say a prayer. Even a child can say a prayer. But to really pray, sometimes it is the hardest thing to do, especially when what you are praying for means a lot to you. Especially when it is something close to your heart. Praying becomes difficult. Suppose someone tells you to pray for a man who is sick in Argentina or in the forest of Venezuela. Ok, you say you can pray but maybe you just mutter or utter a statement of prayer but you don't really pray and it's easy for you to do that. But when it is someone who is close to you is sick, it becomes hard to pray. Suppose your wife miscarries, it is hard for you to pray. Suppose your son right now has been in a hospital for three weeks, it is hard for you to pray. When something is closer to our heart, it becomes harder to pray.

However, in the verses before us, we are given great encouragement that even in something that can be difficult, like prayer, we are not without help. This is what is amazing. God does not just give us the bible which is the handbook, an instruction for life and also for prayer. The bible tells us He also gives us a person to help us in pray. So not just a book, but a person ~ the person of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is given to us that He may be our help. That He may be our partner in prayer. I want you, this morning, to be encouraged with your partner in prayer.
So this morning, we are going to look at this title, this subject, 'Your Perfect Partner in Prayer" ~ Romans 8 : 26, 27. In your life, when you are in trials, when you are in sufferings, and you do not know what to pray for. Hey, you can realize that there is a beautiful, perfect partner in prayer right in your life. So encouraging. God did not give me instructions like here is what you need to do. 'Do, do, do. Obey,obey,obey.' That's needful but when we do not know how to, God gives us a perfect partner in prayer.

04:10

From these two verses, I want to share with you a few thoughts. Number one, I want you to recognise your problem. We need a partner in prayer because we do have a lack, we do have a problem, we do have an inadequacy. In verse 26, the bible tells me that 'the Spirit helps our infirmities'. The word here literally means 'without strength'. It says that we are weak in the place of prayer. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. And here you go 'Pastor, I know what you mean. I can totally identify with weakness in prayer because I find that praying is so difficult. When I want to pray, when I think I should pray, when I know I should pray, I don't pray because I am lazy, I am tired.' Or maybe when you pray, you start to fall asleep, 'Dear God, thank you ...zzz' and you start to fall asleep. It has never happened to GLCC, of course. None of you have ever fallen asleep in prayer but it has happened to many people. We fall asleep in prayer. Our thoughts wander and stray in prayer. And you say 'Pastor, I can understand weakness in prayer because I fall asleep. My thoughts stray and I am lazy.' I can totally identify with the apostles. Even the apostles were weak in their prayer when they were at the Garden of Gethsemane, they fell asleep. Jesus told them to watch and pray but they went to sleep. And Jesus said 'your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak'.
'So Pastor, I understand what this verse says about infirmities, about weakness.' Now, even though what I have said is true, we are weak in that we are lazy, our thoughts stray, we don't focus well but that is not the meaning of the text here. That is not the weakness that is referred to here. The weakness is not the 'how' to pray but the weakness is the 'what' to pray. Why? Because Paul continues to say 'for we know not what we should pray for as we ought'. So the problem is not how. It's what. We are weak in that we do not know exactly what to pray. Isn't that humbling? I think it is. Because oftentimes, as Christians, we like to think we know exactly what to pray for. Paul tells us this is your weakness. The earlier you recognise it, the better it is.

Our weakness is that we often do not know what we should really pray for. Oh, yeah, there are things that you know you should pray for ~ faith, hope, joy, love. These are things you should pray for but in specific circumstances in life, oftentimes you do not know what to pray for. Suppose your pastor is sick, very sick and about to die. Do you know how to pray for him? Do you know how to pray for me? 'Let him die faster, God.' Do you know how to pray for your pastor if he should be sick?

Interestingly, William Hendriksen, a renowned bible commentator, gave an illustration as such : There is a pastor whom his church loves deeply. He was so sick that he was about to die. So the church gathered and said, 'O Lord, please heal our pastor. Heal him, heal him, heal him'. Two days later, he died. At his funeral, a fellow preacher came for the funeral service and preached. This preacher is a long-time friend of the pastor who has just died. He loves the late pastor and, in very loving and insightful words, he began like this :

08:00

Dear Congregation, I sense that you are in the danger of thinking that God doesn't hear prayers because your pastor whom you have been praying to be healed just died. Now let me tell you God hears prayers. But I sense that there are two prayers ~ one prayer by the church and one prayer by the Holy Spirit. The church is praying that your pastor will get well because you love him and you cannot do without him. But the Holy Spirit is praying 'Lord, take him home because the church is too dependent on him and not on you.' This is quite an insight, isn't it?
We often think we know what we should pray for but we do not have the full picture. We have limited vision. We don't know all that there is to it. Suppose your wife gets sick and this is all you pray 'Lord, help her be well, be well, be well'. What if the Will, the superior, better loving Will of God is that she will be sick and God's power and God's purposes will be more manifested in and through her life. What if that is the case? You see, we don't always know what we should pray for as we ought. What we think is good, what we think is better, is not always good and better. (Referring to a Chinese phrase on the screen). This is for the educated. Anyone knows how this reads? The first two characters, Sai Woong, refers to a man who lives in the frontier, a border between two nations. Sai Woong is a rich man and one day, his horse got lost. So his friends came along and sort of wanted to console him. They said, 'Aiyah, so sad. Your horse is gone. Such a misfortune. Please be consoled.' Sai Woong heard what they said and asked, 'How do you know this is a misfortune? It might be a blessing in disguise.'
Some months later, the horse returned on its own. And besides coming back on its own, he brought along a friend ~ a beautiful stallion. So instead of zero, Sai Woong now has two horses. The friends gather again and said, 'Wah, now you have two horses. You are really blessed. You are really fortunate. Sai Woong then says, 'How do you know that this might not be a curse in disguise?'

Sai Woong's son loves to ride horses. One day, he went horse-riding. He fell and broke his leg. The friends gather again, like the friends of Job, and said, 'Aiyah, look at your son. His leg is broken. He's going to be a handicap the rest of his life.' Sai Woong again said, 'How do you know this is not a blessing in disguise?' Sometime later, war broke out between the two nations at the frontier. And all the young men were conscripted into the army and it is said that out of every 10 soldiers who went out to fight, only one survives to make it back home. And Sai Woong's son didn't have to go because of his broken leg. This is what that Chinese phrase means 'when you lose your horse, how do you know if it is a blessing or a curse in disguise?' How would you know? That is the limited knowledge and vision we as men always will have to live with. This is our weakness.

12:18

Therefore Paul says 'we know not what we should pray for as we ought'. This is our problem. This is our limitation. And do you realize that this is a limitation not only for the new Christian but also for the old Christian. Not just for the young but for the mature because Paul says 'we'. That includes him. Now if there's a man who knew the heart of God, who knew theology, who knew the word of God, who has an intimate relationship with God; it would be Paul. I don't think any one of us will dare say 'I am better than Paul' or 'I am closer to God than Paul" or 'I know the scriptures better than Paul' or 'I know the principles of the scriptures better than Paul'. None of us would dare to do that. He is the writer of most of the epistles in the New Testament. He is the apostle to the gentiles. He is a great Christian giant. But Paul says, myself included, we know not what we should pray for as we ought. Is that true? Can that be substantiated in other passages of scripture? Would you like to help me? Which other passages in the bible tell us Paul didn't really know?
But there's a beautiful passage where Paul tells us he was given a thorn in the flesh. Paul had a thorn in the flesh and Paul probably thought 'Lord...' Now I don't think that he is praying that the thorn be removed so that he will be more comfortable. But Paul probably reasoned within himself : I have a thorn in the flesh. This slows me down in ministry. This hinders the work of God through my life. So I pray 'God, would you remove the thorn in my flesh?' God didn't hear it the first time. He prayed the second time. God didn't hear it the second time. He prayed the third time. He believed that it is the Will of God that the thorn will be removed. But the third time, God came to him and said, 'Paul you don't really know what you should pray for as you ought.'

You thought that the better Will is that the thorn is removed. But let me tell you the better Will from my perspective. The better Will for you is that the thorn remains so that you will be weak. So that in your weakness my strength will be manifested. Paul, this is better. That's what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 8 and 9.
"For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

I have just illustrated and explained to you what might have transpired. And how often it is for us that when we think 'better', we think 'nicer'. 'God, take this sickness away, take this illness away, take this catastrophe away'. But wait, it is not always the case. This is our weakness. We know not what we should pray for as we ought.

A second occurrence of Paul's struggle with the lack of the knowledge. It's in Philippines 1:23. He is now in prison in Rome and he knows that his life hangs by a thread. If Caesar wills it, he will be 'kaput' tomorrow. He'll be dead tomorrow. Yet, at the same time, Paul didn't really know how to pray. Should I live, or should I die? So he says, 'I am in a strait between two.'

01:26

I am in a dilemma. If I live, or if I die, I know it's great because I will be with Jesus. Yet, I do know that if I live, the church will be strengthened and blessed. And therefore I am in a strait between two. I know not what I should pray for as I ought. And therefore, there must be that acknowledgement and humility in our lives to say 'Lord, I don't really know.' I know it's a tension in your life. Should I pray for this person who is sick to get well or not. I don't really know. And we need to understand that. You are not God. I believe there are times when God gives us convictions for particular situations or maybe that confidence in what you ask. But, even then, live with this understanding that giants like Paul, and therefore all of us, do have this weakness in that we do not know what to pray for as we ought.
Therefore, it's wise, I think, to acknowledge that whatever we pray for is, and must be, in conformity to the Lord's Will. In Rom 1: 9 and 10, Paul says :
"... without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the WILL OF GOD to come unto you."

He says many times, you know, I wish I will come to Rome. I pray for you. I pray for Rome. I pray for all of you to come to know Jesus and I would like to come to you IF it is the Will of God. He says it again in Rom 15:32
"That I may come unto you with joy by the WILL OF GOD..."
Not my will, I do not know better, but God's Will be done. He says again 'if the Lord will' in 1 Cor 4:19, 'if God will' in Acts 18:21 and in James 4 'if the Lord will'. Look at the scripture and how it does humble us. I am very afraid of people who go around saying 'I know the will of God for every situation of life'. I am very scared of people like that. And I am also very hesitant for members who come and ask 'Pastor, what should I do?' It's not for me to tell you what you should do. Why? I am not God. Frankly, I don't even know what will happen to me or what I should do, many times in my life. And in our prayer life, that acknowledgement is vital. And so this is our problem 'for we know not what we should pray for as we ought'. Some of you may say 'Ah, then we don't need to pray. Since we don't know what to pray for, then let it be. Since it is always the Will of God, then forget about praying.' No, no, no. Please, please, please. This passage is not saying you are so lousy. Don't bother to pray. No, there's an encouragement there but don't give up.

04:14

I read about a story of some elderly ladies who stay in a nursing home and they were also advanced in age and were weak. They were talking among themselves. One of them says 'O, I am so weak that I can't even hold a cup of coffee in my hand.' The other lady says 'O, my eyesight is so poor. I can't even see my hand when I stretch it out before me.' Another lady says 'O, my neck is so arthritic. It's so painful that I can't even turn it properly.' And then another lady says 'I am always giddy and weak because I have been taking hypertensive pills.' And then one lady stood up and say 'O, yah, even though we are so weak, we are thankful we can all still drive.' (Laughter). Don't live near a nursing home like that.
Weakness doesn't need to hinder us from praying. Yes, this is the problem but I want you to know your partner now. Knowing our problem helps us to appreciate our partner. Who is our partner? The bible tells us, in verse 26, 'likewise the Spirit also helps us'. The key to successful prayer; the key, the secret to successful prayer, is not you, but the Spirit. The Holy Spirit - He - is the secret to successful prayer. He comes to help us. That is the miracle. The miracle is that the power of prayer, the assurance of prayer, is not in us but in the Holy Spirit. So don't be too caught up with all the weaknesses and the problems and forget the miracle in your life. He lives in you, if you are His child.

A young mother saw her husband looking into the crib where the new-born baby is. And the wife saw the amazing conglomeration of emotions on the husband's face. His face exuded astonishment, amazement, bewilderment as he looks at the crib and at the baby. So the wife goes up to the husband and says 'Hey, Dear, why is it that you look so confused, amazed, astounded, as you look inside? The husband says 'I have been looking at this for a long time but I can't understand how this crib can cost $45.00. (Laughter)  You know that's what we are? Why am I so weak, why am I so weak? We focus on the wrong thing. We forget that the miracle is that the Holy Spirit is in our lives and He is here to help you in your prayers. The word 'help' is a beautiful word. It's a complex Greek word, by the way. It is made up of 3 little words added together. But let me tell you what it means, in essence. The picture is of a man who is carrying something very, very heavy and he is struggling. He is about to collapse. And someone else comes along and picks up the other end of this heavy object and lifts it together with him. He comes to share the load. He comes to be a partner. He comes to bear the burden together. The Holy Spirit comes and bears the burden together. He is the secret to successful prayer.

07:56

Do you realize something? The Holy Spirit comes to help us in our prayer. He doesn't necessarily take away the problems in your life. He doesn't necessarily take away the pains and the sufferings in your life but He helps you through it. The greater miracle is not that the problems are removed. The greater miracle is that I walk with God through the problems. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And one amazing thought is that the Holy Spirit comes to help us and not to condemn us. He doesn't despise us. He doesn't reject us. He doesn't say 'Why are you so weak? Why are you so ignorant? Why don't you know how to do this?' No. He doesn't say that. The bible says 'in our weakness, He comes to help us'.
Do you realize that there are Christians today who are always thinking that God is a whack-a-mole God? I have shown you a picture before, haven't I? You go to the amusement arcade, you put some money in, and those moles keep popping up and you are supposed to hammer them. And you think that God is like that. Whenever there is a problem that comes up, He whacks you. He's waiting for a chance to 'tekan' me. That is a Hokkien word meaning 'to punish or torture'. No, He is here to help you.

You see, some Christians today live that kind of a rigid, self-reliant life that is devoid of joy. Christianity to them is a duty and not a delight. Why? Because they have a skewed idea of who God is. The Holy Spirit comes to help us. There's a wonderful name in the bible given to the Holy Spirit. Jesus used this often. Another name given to the Holy Spirit is 'Comforter'. Comforter doesn't mean the blanket which we sometimes use. The word 'Comforter' is in English. But in the original Greek, it is 'Parakletos'. Para means beside, parallel. Kletos comes from the word kaleo, meaning 'to call'. So the Holy Spirit is our Parakletos. The person or God called to be beside us.

In the Greek secular usage of that word, parakletos is often applied to a lawyer, an advocate, who stands beside his client and pleads his case. And this is what it says 'the Spirit helps us'. He pleads our case. No lawyer comes to help you, stands beside you and says to the judge 'Judge, he is guilty. As I talk with him, I realize he really committed this crime. He is worthy of all the punishment. Sentence him'. No lawyer does that. The Holy Spirit comes to plead our case. What does He do? So we have understood this. We have a problem. We have a partner. The Holy Spirit comes to help us. In what way does He really help us? In Rom 8:26, the bible says,
"the Spirit itself (I really think it should be the Spirit Himself) makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered".

This is what He does. When in suffering and pain, when the disappointments are so overwhelming, the loss so profound and the pain so deep that you have no words to express. You are lost for words. The Holy Spirit, in a sense, comes and says, 'I will take care of that for you'. It's ok. Even if you are lost for words, as you kneel before God, as you look to God, as you desperately sigh and cry in your heart and you find not the words in your mouth, the Holy Spirit comes and makes intercession with you and for you. He presents those desires, desperations and dependences in your heart.

12:00

You see, prayer is not so much what you say with your mouth but what comes from the heart. He does that and maybe you have prayed for things that are amiss. For example, sickness. You are sick and you are struggling. You are reeling in pain. And all you know is, Lord, get me out of this sickness. But maybe the Will of God is something else. You keep asking this but the Holy Spirit sees that weakness; perfects, in a sense, the prayer that you have prayed amiss and presents it to God according to His Will. This is what it is. The Holy Spirit makes intercession with us and, I think, for us.

A story is told of a little girl, a five-year-old, who has just suffered the loss of something that is very important to her. Her dad is concerned how she would react to that and so he went upstairs and came to the outside of her room and looked at what she was doing. He was pleasantly surprised to see the little girl kneeling beside her bed and being in a posture of prayer. And so he puts his ear nearer to try to listen to what she is praying, what is it that she will ask God for. And the little five-year-old girl said 'ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRSTUV WXY and Z'. And she prayed that over and over again. Daddy was puzzled. After the prayer, he went to her and asked 'Dear, why did you say ABCDEFG when you are bowed down in such a posture?' And she said 'I was praying to God.' 'Praying to God?' 'Yes, I was praying to God. I didn't know what to do and I figured God is smart enough to figure out what I need and so I gave Him my letters and He frames them for me.' (Laughter). I am not suggesting we pray like that. (Laughter). Please don't. We have a responsibility to learn the heart of God, to learn the principles of God, to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. We are responsible to learn about prayer.

Yet at the same time sometimes words just ain't enough. Sometimes words just fail us. Sometimes we do not know what we ought to pray for as we ought. We can be rejoicing that the Spirit helps us. I picture it also like this. This may not be a very accurate illustration but it somewhat helps. Suppose you have a photo-copying machine that breaks down in the office. And you are the only person who is there to take care of it. You call up the manufacturer and say 'Hey, this photo-copying machine doesn't work. It seems to be jammed. It doesn't seem to be functioning well. Can you help me?' The guy asks you 'can you open this casing, go to that roller, look at that button.' You say, 'I don't know what you are talking about.' 'No, no, no. Go to check that. Look at the mother board or the father board. Check all those things and tell me.' And you struggle over the phone because you do not know what those things are and you have no language to describe them. Then you, in your frustration, say 'can you send someone to help me?' The technician comes. He opens the casing, looks at the rollers, check the buttons just like you did. Then he makes a phone call back to the office and says 'hey, towkay, this is what I need : button 3... etc.' And within a few seconds, the towkay says 'alright, I understand. We are going to send the parts to you right now'.

Sometimes we do not know what is happening. You don't know how to say. The Holy Spirit knows the mind of God, knows the Will of God. And even when we ask wrongly, He perfects it, in His mercy. So this is the great encouragement to prayer. Prayer is the desires, the desperations, the dependences in your heart. The Spirit takes those things, and, like a vehicle, he uses it to carry his intercession to the throne of God. He uses your groanings, He uses your desires, He uses your dependences and your desperations as vehicles to carry the intercessions to the throne of God. That's what He does. And He prays for you, not against you.

02:28

You see, the book of Romans, and especially chapter 8, is about how much God is for you. There is now no more condemnation. It begins right there and it tells us right at the end that nothing shall separate you from the love of God and that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, in verse 1, verse 2. How we are led by the Spirit, how we are victors over sin. How He leads us and gives us the assurance to cry 'Abba, Father'. And now He helps us in our prayer. He's so much for you. therefore, in your prayer life you don't have to be stressed out over words. You know there are people who are very scared of praying. Why? Because your English is not the King James' style. (Laughter). You can't say the 'thou' and the 'thee'. After a while, you say, better don't say too much, better don't pray too much because my words are not beautiful. My prayer doesn't sound eloquent. My friends, that is not the issue. It's hard. Don't make the prayer the issue. Let God be the focus. So often we focus on our prayer. That's the wrong focus, by the way. The focus is God. The Holy Spirit gives you the assurance to focus on God. I like what Spurgeon has to say. He's ever so quotable, isn't He? He says :
"That the king should say to the petitioner, 'Bring your case before me, and I will grant your desire' is kindness." (Absolute kindness that the king should listen to us. However,)
But for Him to say 'I will be your secretary. I will write out your petition for you. I will put it into proper words so that your petition shall be framed acceptably' this is goodness at its utmost stretch.  But this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does for us poor, ignorant, wavering, weak men."
Wow, he got it right. Another poem :

"O God, too weak and worn for words, I shrink
From trials that deeply wound, and yet to think
Your Holy Spirit helps me as I pray
And gives a voice to what I cannot say."

04:50

We praise God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives that when we are weak and ignorant, and we know not what we should pray for as we ought, the Spirit comes into our lives to be the Parakletos ~ to be the one to help us, to be the one to pray for us and to pray that prayer that is right at the centre of the Will of God, taking our weak cries to be the vehicles for His strong prayer to arrive at the throne of God. This is the partner you have in prayer and this is the tremendous promise. This is the tremendous power of this kind of a prayer and in Romans 8 : 27, it says :
"And He that searcheth the hearts (and who is He? God, the Father) knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the Will of God."

The Holy Spirit always pray in the Will of God. Always. And because His prayer is always in the Will of God, His prayer is always answered. Your prayers, on your own, may not always be answered but the prayers of the Holy Spirit, because they are always in the Will of God, are always answered. They are always right. They will always be done. And this hundred percent accuracy prayer warrior is the Holy Spirit who lives in you today. When you go home, you shut the door and you think you are alone with God in prayer, let me remind you that you have the Holy Spirit who is going to pray aright. Even when you are amiss, He takes those desires and desperations and perfects them and brings them to the throne. And again I quote Spurgeon :
"The Holy Spirit's intercessions have in them such a blessed blending of all that is good that they come up as a sweet perfume before the Lord...That prayer which came from heaven will certainly go back to heaven. If the Holy Ghost prompts it, the Father must, and will, accept it, for it is not possible that He should put a slight upon the ever blessed and adorable Spirit."
It will always be done. It will always be done.

07:19

This week I posted a quote on my Facebook page. It is by Robert Murray McCheyne. And this is what he said :
"God will either give you what you ask, or something far better."
It can't be more accurate than that. It is true. If what you pray is in the Will of God, God will give you what you ask. But if it is not in the Will of God, He will give you something better. Again I want to qualify : better does not mean more comfortable, better does not always mean nicer but it is better because it is the Will of the Spirit. And God's Will is always good, acceptable and perfect. So it is true.

By the way, these verses (26 and 27) do not make us passive in prayer. They should not. It should not mean that 'O, the Holy Spirit is praying so I don't have to pray'. No. It is as I pray, the Holy Spirit helps me. So when I pray, this is my confidence. God will answer me the way I have prayed if it is in His Will. But if it is not in His Will, it is the Spirit's Will that will be done. It is always better than mine. Tremendous assurance and encouragement in prayer from Romans 8 : 26 and 27.

I close with one more verse. And it is this :

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."
Do you realize something? The Trinity is involved in prayer for you. Who is praying for you here? Jesus Christ, who is now risen and at the right hand of God. What is He doing? He is praying for me. He's praying for you. We have a super prayer team, do you realize that? A prayer team that will never fail. A prayer team that consists of the Holy Spirit in my heart and the Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven. I am right in the middle. This is a prayer team that cannot be refused and the Trinity is involved in praying for you.

09:44

As I close, let me summarize in a few thoughts :

Number 1, if you don't always know what to pray, don't beat yourself up over it. By all means, grow in scripture, learn, study the bible, get to the heart of God as far as you can, but even then, don't expect yourself to pray infallibly. It's ok. You have the Spirit who helps you.

Number 2, I hope you'll be encouraged to know the Spirit prays FOR you and not AGAINST you.

Number 3, I hope you'll realize that whenever you pray, God can do and will do exceeding abundantly above what you ask for. You know why? It is the Holy Spirit who helps you in this prayer.

My friends, pray. Because the Spirit will not help you in your prayer if you are not praying, you see. So this is a great passage that motivates and encourages us to seek God in prayer because we have a perfect partner in prayer. May all glory be His. And may your life be one of intimate communion and prayer to God. Praise Him for His Spirit who lives within. Let's bow for a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you so much that in as far as scripture reveals to us, we have a tremendous encouragement to pray today because we are never alone in a place of prayer. Thank you, your Spirit is that Parakletos called to help us in our struggles and in our burdens as we go through life. We thank you that He perfects and presents the prayers that are in your Will. O, how gracious He is to take our weak prayers, oftentimes erroneous prayers, beautifies them and perfects them and brings them to you according to your Will. Lord, teach us to pray more. Teach us to rejoice and rely on you more. I pray our lives will be one of intimate communion and relationship found in a place of prayer. We are so encouraged because the Spirit helps us. We thank you for your unchanging, eternal love. Thank you that this is the ministry of the blessed Spirit of God. The real miracle in our lives. May our eyes be focused on Him. We thank you today, even with this little verse, verse 34, that your son, Jesus, is right now praying for us. Lord, we are thankful. Thankful that we are eternally secure and assured because of the ministry of the Son and the Spirit before you. We praise you for your mercy. We praise you because it's all about you. Thank you. We ask all this now, dear Lord, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. God bless.