From his very first letters to the early church, the apostle Paul understood that believers were prayer challenged, and he counted himself among that group. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes: “the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to teh will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).

From ancient times we are joined to a community of believers who have struggled with how to pray in the face of death and destruction, famine and disease, persecution and distress, whatever hardship encountered. We are not alone when words fail us when it comes to prayer. Paul reminds his readers that even so, God’s Spirit is alive and attentive in us, listening to our inward groans, our secret sighs, our muffled cries.

Paul tells us that our groanings, our sighs, our silences, our screams, our confusion, our longings, our tears, all of these are prayer. In each of these utterances, we are assured that God, who searches our heart, knows our prayers and is at work bringing something good from the very worst we face. This is not theology that says: everything happens for a reason. This is a theology that says: there is nothing in this world that can separate us from God and the new life that is promised to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Even when we do not know how to pray or what to pray, God’s Spirit, alive in us, is joining our silent longings to the yearnings of all creation.

In these moments, when words fail us, God, the heart-searcher, hears our silent pleas for strength, for thanks, for courage, for forgiveness. Even when we don’t realize it, God is already at work redeeming and re-forming this creation.

In our baptisms, we have been given a Spirit who prays on our behalf. Not because of who we are, but because of who God is. God is for us and God’s Spirit is always at work with us and in us to restore this world that God so loves to wholeness.

Lord, hear our prayer . . .