Today's Passage - Romans 8:26

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 8:26   "In the same way, 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."   "Weakness" means to struggle in the original text, which means the groaning inside the believers and the struggle between the law of God and law of our body.  In the midst of this struggle, we often don't know what to do or where our help is going to come from.  Therefore, Paul continue with: "We do not know what we ought to pray for..."  Isn't that how we feel when are weak?  I often run into believers who told me they don't know how to pray or their prayers don't seem to be effective.  So what kind of prayer is effective?  Our prayer is often murmuring to ourselves, always self-centered and meant to seek our own gratification.  These prayers are simply to express our own desires but we don't necessarily touch God's heart.  A prayer that truly pleases God is one that prays in accordance with will of God.   So how do we pray in accordance with will of God?  We need the help from Holy Spirit.  In fact, Paul said here that the Holy Spirit "himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express ".  In the original text, "groans" means the word from Holy Spirit.  Holy Spirit will speak to us and guide us when we are in need.  All we need to do is to listen to the voice of Holy Spirit attentively.  First of all, we need to welcome the Holy Spirit to come and work.  Holy Spirit is the God who is very tender and He will never force us to do anything; therefore, we need to proactively welcome His work.  Sometimes Chinese people find it hard to open our mouth to ask for something because of our ego and rationalism.  We need to humble ourselves and welcome the Holy Spirit to come and bring the authority of Christ into our lives.  Second, we must follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes God will prompt us deep down inside us, and He also may use different ways to prompt us through our mind and thoughts.  Third, and also the most important, is that as soon as the Holy Spirit manifests His will, we must obey and act according to God's will.  We will surely be blessed.                                  Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, please show us your way; open our eyes so that we can see and open our ears so that we can hear.  Open our hearts so that you we can truly understand your will, and let your will be dome in our lives.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!