Ask for help

DEVOTION

ROMANS

ASK FOR HELP

Rom 8:26-27

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. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

NIV 

To ask for help can be difficult. Most often we might feel we can do it ourselves. If we do not know how to do something we try to figure it out, or learn so that we than can do it without asking someone to assist us. It is most likely a pride issue which keeps us from asking for help. There are times certain tasks are just beyond our abilities and we have to ask for help, praying perfectly within the will of God is one of them. Although we have the word of God and we know many of the desires God has for us, there are times we just do not know how to pray. We would think praying should be easy. We know we should pray for the sick, especially if we are one of the pastors or elders or deacons of the church. The word of God tells us about this being sick.

James 5:13-16

13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

NIV

So then we know any leader within the church should know how to pray for the sick. However, there is a condition attached to this type of prayer. It must be a prayer in faith otherwise the sick will not get well. Here is where faith meets with the Spirit. The Spirit helps us know how to pray perfectly within the will of God. Now about the sick getting healed also has something to do with confessed sin. We cannot go forward to ask to be anointed for a healing if we have any unconfessed sin in our life. So that confession should come before the prayer for healing. But the point is the Spirit is there to help us pray. The prayer for healing is just one kind of prayer. How do we pray for other aspects of our life? Do we pray about every aspect of our life? Do we just go about doing our own thing, making our own choices or decisions about what we should do until we find ourselves in some kind of trouble, then ask God for help? Why wouldn’t we ask God first what we should do? Do we know what he would say, or do we know how to ask with the right motives. We know if we ask with the wrong motives it is useless to ask. But the Spirit knows the perfect will of God and if we allow the Spirit to guide our prayer we will be right where we should be at all times and doing exactly what God desires for us. There are some denominations that would interpret this groaning of the Spirit with words that cannot expressed as speaking in tongues. That might be, but even then some kind of words are expressed. So then how does the Spirit pray? He prays through us, our words, but he guides those words. We need to ask the Spirit how to pray, what to pray. But what may also be the point of this truth is that because God searches our heart he also knows the mind of the Spirit because they are one. So then God prays for us to himself which then would always be perfectly within his will. Does the Spirit pray even when we are not? That would be interesting. Most likely it is the Spirit guiding our prayer, so we need to ask the Spirit what we should pray. Asking for help to pray within the will of God is a good thing. Pride has no place in prayer, so every prayer should be with the help of the Spirit. Ask for help.