Our prayers would be nothing without God in us. This daily devotional looks at how the Holy Spirit is essential for our prayers.
Nuggets
- When God abides in us, our prayers are answered more quickly because we desire to follow God’s Will.
Devotions in the Conditions of Power in Prayer series
Spurgeon told us the conditions and essentials that are needed to be met in order to access God’s power when we pray. The essentials are having child-like obedience, reverence, trust, love, ways, and spirit.
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We said that faith, love, and obedience had to be prevalent. The last thing on Spurgeon’s list is the Spirit.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Prayer is a two-way communication with God in which we pour out our soul to Him.
The Universality of the Spirit
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8: 26 ESV)
When God abides in us, our prayers are answered more quickly because we desire to follow God’s Will.
In the verses just prior to Romans 8: 26, Paul had been talking about the redemption of our bodies. This encompassed hope and patience.
The weakness mentioned in verse 26 refers to the physical, mental, and moral infirmities we have. Still, God has compassion for us (Ps. 103: 13-14).
Silcox reminded us that, though God will meet us where we are, He doesn’t want us to stay that way. He wants us to grow to have His moral character.
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
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But we have the Holy Spirit to help us get to that moral character. He is God within us.
Beecher took a different scenic route than Silcox. Beecher wrote, “Feebleness of the whole economy by which we are to come into knowledge, and through knowledge into virtue, and through virtue into vital godliness — this is the general meaning of infirmity.”
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While Beecher went on to talk about our physical weaknesses, he talked first about the weaknesses of our spiritual lives. It is hard to be in a physical body in a secular world trying to perpetuate a spiritual life.
I see that more as what Paul was going for here. God is far more concerned about our spiritual condition than our physical condition.
God made us even though He knew we were going to be disobedient. He knew He would have to win us back to have a relationship with us.
The wonder of it is that God did not turn His back on us. He designed the Plan of Salvation. He resides within us when we submit to Him. He sent His Holy Spirit to guide us when we become His children again.
Glossary
But the problem is we are so entrenched in this world sometimes. We don’t know that for which we should pray.
Enter the Holy Spirit. He steps in and intervenes for us.
No, the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak English, French, or even Hebrew. He speaks God’s language.
Remember, we just talked about the redemption of our bodies encompassing hope and patience. Paget said we put words to that hope by praying.
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The thing is, we must be known by our prayers. Strutt said all disciples must be praying people. Yet, we must pray our own prayers, not someone else’s.
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To me, that says we must go beyond the model prayer to talking with God in our own words.
Making the Connections
I loved what Paget said. He wrote, “There is a grace which takes the place of knowledge, and brings the will and the aspirations of men into a mysterious harmony with the unseen: a grace which lifts the desires of the human heart above all that this fragment of the universe can offer, and orders its impulses according to a truly universal law; a grace which leads us on when knowledge falters, and will lead when knowledge shall vanish away; a grace which is His gift alone — the grace of hope.”
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God’s grace makes our hearts rise above this world and gives us hope of the next.
This is done through the work of the Spirit. Not that the Spirit does it Himself, though.
The Spirit works with us.
How Do We Apply This?
- Pray for the world in which we live.
- Pray that we do not fall into temptation.
- Pray for God’s blessings.
- Pray for a proper spirit of prayer.
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Father God. We can only come to You through the work of Your Spirit in us. Use Him to change our hearts to be more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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