Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from anonymous group of children singing … Standing In the Need of Prayer … poignantly declaring that, as Christians, we all need prayer at times.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Romans 8:26 [NLT] …
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
… What a comfort to know - and believe - this truth when we’re so out-of-it that we don’t know what to pray.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Romans 8:22-26 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Apostle Paul teaches the truth about our Advocate, the Holy Spirit, Who will go before God and pray even when we can’t.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … Galatians 6:2 [NLT] …
2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.
… We’re exhorted - by God thru Paul - to share the prayer needs of others to God, which is obeying Christ’s law of love.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … James 5:16 [NLT] …
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
… And when other Christians bring there prayer needs to us in need of healing prayer, I’m sure we’re more than glad to take their needs to God. And when He senses the prayers of the faithful, He will pour His grace out to the one in need.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Randy Kilgore, used a very personal story to illustrate how there are times when, as Christians, that we simply can’t pray. The ODB author wrote: In November 2015, I learned I needed open-heart surgery. Surprised and a little shaken, I was naturally drawn to think about the possibility of death. Were there relationships I needed to mend? Were there financial matters I needed to attend to for my family? Was there work that could be done ahead of time? And what about work that couldn’t wait; who should I hand that off to? It was a time to both act and pray.
Except I couldn’t do either.
My body was so weary and my mind so fatigued that even the simplest of tasks seemed beyond my strength. Perhaps most surprising, when I tried to pray, my thoughts would drift to the discomfort, or the shallow breathing caused by the damaged heart made me fall asleep. It was frustrating. I couldn’t work and I couldn’t even ask God to let me live so I could spend more time with my family!
If I poled my readers today, I would probably read of many of you thinking … “Yeah, been there … got that T-shirt!” We’ve all had times, as disciples of Christ, when life was just so overwhelming or so exhausting that we couldn’t concentrate enough to bring our thoughts to God, haven’t we? But then, if we’ve known our Lord well enough, we remember, and believe, that we have an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, Who goes before God’s throne of grace FOR US in times like these and brings exactly what we need to pray to our Lord (see the highlight passages above).
But not only should we be comforted by the truth that our Holy Spirit will - and does - pray for us before God when it’s difficult for us to pray for ourselves; but I’m sure all of us Christians have had times when a brother or sister in Christ has asked us to pray for them. And when that happens, I’m sure we all feel honored and humbled to do so. And it doesn’t take much imagination to just KNOW that our God must love to hear His children praying for the needs of others (see Gal. 6:2 and James 5:16).
So, if we have others who need prayer today, let’s join the Holy Spirit and lift those anointed prayers to our Lord.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Dear Lord, … I’m here again today, praying for dear ones who need You; and I’m feeling so grateful that others are praying for me, … especially You, Holy Spirit. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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