How the Holy Spirit Helps You in Your Weaknesses
Thinking about Romans 8:26-27.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)
Not only do we look ahead with hope in the gospel of Christ, but the Holy Spirit Himself helps us “in our weaknesses” as we face “the sufferings of this present time” (Romans 8:18).
What is “our weaknesses?”
Paul explains what he means by our weaknesses when he writes, “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.”
You and I are not all-knowing like God. Sometimes, we face suffering and difficult circumstances and have no idea what to ask when we pray to God.
Because Jesus Christ took on flesh and lived among us (John 1:14), He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
God is not only able to help us in our weaknesses, but He cares enough about us to help us in our weaknesses (1 Peter 5:7).
But how does the Holy Spirit help us in our weaknesses, according to our passage in Romans 8?
The Spirit intercedes for the Christian.
The passage's context has reminded us that our weakness is that we don’t always know what to pray for. The Spirit helps us by interceding for us.
Intercession is “the action of intervening on behalf of someone else.” In the biblical context, it’s when someone goes to God on your behalf. For example, Paul commands Christians to offer “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks” for all people - including our government leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Christians “make intercession” to God on behalf of all people in this way.
The Holy Spirit steps in on the Christian’s behalf before God and “lends a helping hand” when the Christian is suffering or facing difficult circumstances in life and doesn’t know what to pray.
The word [helpeth or helps] is used only one other time in the New Testament, Luke 10:40, where Martha asks Christ to tell her sister to “give me a hand.” The word is a compound which means just that. The Holy Spirit lends a hand; He takes a share in our infirmities. - McGuiggan, Romans, 250
With groanings which cannot be uttered.
The creation is said to “groan” (Romans 8:22) as it “eagerly awaits” (Romans 8:19) the approaching “freedom of God’s children” (Romans 8:21).
Christians also “groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).
The Greek word for “groanings” in Romans 8:26 occurs one other time in Acts 7:34. That passage describes how God saw the suffering of the children of Israel in Egypt and heard their “groanings.” He came to rescue them from their suffering in Egyptian slavery.
There are at least a couple of different ideas here about what the “groanings which cannot be uttered” are referring to.
Some think it references the groaning of Christians during times of suffering. While we don’t always know what to pray during these times, the Holy Spirit steps in on our behalf and takes our prayers to God. This viewpoint is certainly consistent with the passage.
Some think it’s a reference to the groaning of the Spirit. Since this groaning is connected to suffering, this would mean that God Himself suffers when He sees the suffering of His people. This would also be consistent with the passage and what we read in other passages like Hebrews 4:14-16.
The way the phrase is worded - “the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” - leads me to think this refers to the groaning of the Spirit Himself.
The Spirit acts according to God’s will.
The one who investigates the hearts of Christians also knows what the mind of the Spirit is - because the Spirit acts in accordance with God’s will.
Knowing that God investigates and knows what is in the heart is comforting to the child of God who is suffering and doesn’t know what to pray for. We remember that Jesus knows what is in man (John 2:24-25).
If you don’t know what to pray in a difficult and trying moment, take comfort that the Spirit intercedes for you in those moments and that God knows.
The Spirit intercedes for us in accordance with God’s will. Jesus came to do the Father’s will (John 4:34). The things He did and taught were in complete agreement with the will of God (John 5:19). The Holy Spirit also only does that which is in agreement with Jesus’ words and the will of the Father (John 16:13-14).
This is a beautiful picture painted here for the suffering Christian.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are involved in the prayer of the Christian. God knows what you are facing, and He is touched by the feelings of what you are experiencing (Hebrews 4:15).
He doesn’t leave you to suffer alone - He is there with you and helps you.
Christian, you are not the only one eagerly awaiting the return of Jesus.
God Himself is pictured in Romans 8:26-27 as suffering along with you when you suffer - and just as you long for the day when Jesus returns and the suffering is over, God longs along with us for the same thing.
Remember how Jesus reacted at the tomb of Lazarus when he saw all the grief and pain death had caused?
Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35)
We will not be the only ones who will rejoice when God wipes away every tear and ends all death, sorrow, crying, and pain (Revelation 21:4).
I thought intercession was done on our behalf by Jesus and He was also our advocate. I have never truly understood the Holy Spirit except after Baptism we receive the gift of grace and the Holy Spirit. Which led me to assume the Holy Spirit resides in me?