This… is deeply encouraging. I often feel so unspiritual, praying in drips and drabs as I pass a prayer wall in my home with pictures of friends and missionaries, all of whom I know could use prayer a 1,000 times each day. Yet, God knows my weakness, and He the Spirit directs me to pray… for my good and the good of those whom I love enough to ask God to bless. Wow… thanks to Pastor Piper and to all the Desiring God team! This is very helpful. I will remember this, and when I study Romans with others, I will certainly encourage others to watch them his video!
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
According to Romans when we are weak we do not know what we should pray for. What do we do? Well we pray without using any words. A wordsless prayer allows the Holy Spirit to intercede for us. A long time of wordless prayers allows the Holy Spirit to intercede for us as we receive grace for grace. So beloved pray wordlessly. And your faith shall be be builded up.
I believe our groaning is different from that of the Spirit. When we take the passage from the top we see that the earth groans, we groan, and the Spirit groans. Just as the Son makes intercession for us, the Spirit helps us in prayer. Our dependence is therefore not on our eloquence in prayer but on the help of the Spirit. The prayer of a child is thus equally as powerful before God as the prayer of a pastor. That is why the devil would do everything possible to distract us from prayer.