Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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 through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

• Romans 8:26-27

I slept but my heart was awake.
    Listen! My beloved is knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my darling,
    my dove, my flawless one.
My head is drenched with dew,
    my hair with the dampness of the night.”

• Song of Songs 5:2

It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.

• Luke 12:37

“Then we will have everything and yet nothing. What God gives is precisely what we should have desired to ask. For we will have whatever we he wills, and only that. In this way, this state contains all prayer: it is a work of the heart that includes all its desire. The Spirit prays within us for those very things that the Spirit himself wills to give us. Even when we are occupied with outward things, when our thoughts are drawn off by what our duties or position may require, we still carry within us a constantly burning fire that is not, and cannot be put out. It nourishes a secret prayer and is like a lamp continually lighted before the throne of God. ‘I slept but my heart was awake.’ ‘Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.’ ”

• François Fénelon

When we pray, earnestly pray, and we are in the Spirit, our prayers might resemble what archbishop Fénelon is saying.  But most of our praying falls short.  Of course, the Holy Spirit can interpret what we are saying with groanings and such, but I wonder if the Holy Spirit filters prayers that are simply not of the spirit?

When we pray for things that are not within the will of God, does the Holy Spirit filter what the Father hears?  Or does the Holy Spirit groan, “There he/she goes again, off on a tangent!”

When we pray for others, sometimes they are healed, if that is what they need.  But the ultimate healing is to be with the Lord in Heaven.  It’s not that God answered ‘no’; He answered that prayer in the ultimate sense.  It’s just that we shift our prayers to pray for those who are grieving.

But I think my most effective prayer is, “Dear Lord, I need help.  I have everything I need, thanks to You.  Please, Lord, keep it up.  Amen.”

I hear about all those people that say that you won’t get … unless you ask.  But what if you are content with what you have?  Since God meets your needs, is that not the Holy Spirit at work within you?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.