The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day six)

…the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. Romans 8:27

This is a Trinitarian text. It captures the heart and mystery of the union of the Father, Son, and the Spirit…harmony. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “you don’t have because you don’t ask, and when you do, you ask with the wrong motives.” That’s the opposite of harmony; the Spirit never asks with the wrong motives, only ones in perfect alignment with the Father’s will.

Listen, when the Spirit pleads for us, the Father’s answer is always, always,

“Yes…my will be done.”

Why? Because of Trinitarian harmony. In all  life’s bumps and bruises this side of eternity,

our weaknesses (vs. 26), or what we suffer now (vs. 18), 

the Spirit asks and acts to fulfill the Father’s will, His Son-exalting, Jesus-conforming will.

Can’t think of a greater guarantee than that. I can hold on to that, even when I can’t see or feel what God is doing,

especially when life hurts the most. Harmony.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day five)

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness… but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words… because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Isn’t the Holy Spirit amazing?  We are told (and rightly believe) that the Lord is watching us. Proverbs 5:21, “For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths”. In the same way, we also believe that God knows us- Psalm 139.  And with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we can be encouraged that God understands us.  Being understood is one of our biggest needs.  How many parents have been told by their teenage children, “You just just don’t understand”?  Not so with our Heavenly Father. He has provided a means for us, even in our own confusion (distress, angst, suffering) or lack of understanding, a way to be perfectly (according to the will of God) understood. What peace, comfort, and confidence believing that truth can bring to the heart of a believer!!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day four)

I am a planner/organizer…I like to ‘fix’ things.  When I am confronted with a task or challenge, my mind immediately goes to a step-by-step solution to the problem.  It is a gift, but like every other spiritual gift, it can be used in the Spirit or out of the Spirit.  The danger for me is when I immediately go to my own solution and never seek counsel from the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes, the challenge is just too great!  It is so overwhelming that I cannot even see a way to fix it!  (Think…major health issue, global pandemic, or close friend that just will not turn to Christ!) It is then that I understand the ‘groaning too deep for words’.  My ‘need’ happens more often than I care to admit, but it is in these major events that I am confronted more clearly with my failure to follow the Spirit.

The Spirit is constantly at work in our lives.  Learning to walk in the Spirit is one of the key elements of becoming more like Christ.  How do we live every day, completely surrendered to the direction of the Holy Spirit?  Sounds like a question that needs ‘fixing’…in the Spirit!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day three)

“We do not know how to pray as we should.”

Perhaps the last thing you want to encounter is one more “should” in your life. How long is your list of “shoulds” already? Yeah. Same. This “should” is different, though. No, really. It isn’t announcing, “You’re doing it wrong.” Paul is simply saying that God is perfectly aware of how hard it is for you to speak of things that are painful to acknowledge even to yourself. It’s much easier to say, “Help me learn contentment” than to blurt out “I am grieving the loss of that dream I’ve had for so long.” It’s much easier to utter, “Help me know which way to go,” than to express, “Why have you left me here without any direction?” That’s why God’s Spirit groans. Each groan declares, “There’s more this soul must say.”

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day two)

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

There is so much to consider when discussing the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The disciples at Pentecost were filled with the Spirit and able to boldly proclaim the truth of Jesus in every language. It was monumental in the establishment of the early church. Boldness is one of the characteristics that we often associate with the Spirit’s work. The disciples were already accustomed to telling others about Jesus’ life and work, but the Spirit enabled them to proclaim with a newfound authority.

The Spirit also works in our weaknesses. Areas of our lives where we are not confident, or even where our brokenness is most pronounced. A life lived in the Spirit is one that accepts that those areas can be used to glorify God. If you are redeemed, you are fully redeemed, even those areas where the only way you can grow is by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus knows our every weakness (by the Holy Spirit) take it to the Lord in prayer.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:5-11 (day seven)

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” vs 9

Notice what Paul does here. He interchangeably uses Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ to describe the Holy Spirit. He is helping shape the theology of a young church who may not fully understand a triune concept of God.  Two thousand years later, it still seems like a foreign concept sometimes, so it makes sense that Paul would emphasize this teaching. He is saying that Jesus is God, the Spirit is God, and the Father is God. No, the Bible never uses the exact word “Trinity”, but it is passages like this that help us shape Trinitarian theology.

So what does this mean for us in light of the passage? God loves you so much that He Himself became flesh and dwelt among us, and He Himself now dwells in you. As a Christian, you no longer belong to the flesh, you belong to Him!

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:5-11 (day six)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life…”-Jesus

New faith inaugurates a new journey, a new way. Just like Jesus, we are led by the Spirit of life into the desert of the world. With new ways of beholding and rejoicing in truth, and loving, and living, a new identity emerges, or should I say is realized.

Up until the moment Jesus returns, when even our bodies are made new and glorious in freedom, that’s our journey this side of eternity. Walking, even running at times, but not on our own, the Spirit seals, and prompts, and gifts; shaping new thoughts, rejoicing in new things, fulfilling new purpose.

We are the children of God, clothed in the very righteousness of Jesus, that’s for certain, but with every Spirit led step and thought, the more of His righteousness we will actually see take shape.

That’s journey; that’s the way. By the Spirit, let’s walk in it.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:5-11 (day five)

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God;”
Paul makes it clear where the struggle and battle between the flesh and the Spirit are first waged-  in the mind. Our thoughts are an on-ramp to holiness or destruction. Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.”  Later in Romans 12 “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Tim Keller sheds more light on this.  “The mind is not neutral ground and cannot love one preoccupation without rejecting the other.”  This why Paul calls the mind set on the flesh, an enemy of God. Can you think of anything worse than being an enemy of God?  So we must set our minds on the Spirit (become focused and preoccupied with the things that preoccupy the Spirit). Let us constantly ask the Spirit to teach and lead us to discover and understand the Spirit’s priorities, principles, and practices.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:5-11 (day four)

I worked for a summer at DFW Airport for Eastern Airlines.  I never tired of watching the planes take off.  Working on the baggage crew, I knew how much weight we loaded on the planes.  Add to that the fuel, the passengers and the actual weight of the aircraft…there was significant weight to lift.  Every time I would watch a jumbo 747 lumber down the runway, I would say, “It will never fly!”  Gravity was always at work but the thrust of the engines was a greater force…it always lifted off.  (Thanks to Dr. Wayne Barber for the analogy.)

The law of sin is always at work in our lives.  It can seem to be overwhelming and strong at times.  When we are in Christ, the Holy Spirit is a greater force in our lives than the gravity of sin.  The Holy Spirit supersedes the power of sin and death.  No longer are we confined by the law of sin, but, in Christ, we live for eternity under the power of a new law…the law of the Spirit.