Rom.8:26 – NASB – for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
Rom.8:26 – MSG – If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.
Rom.8:26 – NIV – We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
Rom.8:26 – NLT – 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.
Rom.8:26 – TPT – For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.
Paul is being brutally honest in this passage, after all, all of us have known those frustrating moments when you just don’t know how to pray. It could be when your house has been flooded and the insurance adjusters won’t even answer your calls. Or it could be when your ninety nine year old mom falls down repeatedly and has zero quality of life left. Or maybe the company you have worked for for years is closing down shop and moving to another state, your whole life is here and the last thing on your mind is moving or starting over.
Life has all sorts of moments like that in it and sometimes there doesn’t seem to be a direct answer to your problem in scripture and you have no words to express your prayers. That’s when the wordless sigh takes over. You may not have words to pray and all you can muster is a wordless sigh or a groan from somewhere down deep. These prayers can sometimes be the best prayers, the Holy Spirit takes our wordless sighs and groans and shapes them into prayers. This is the miracle in all of this, He knows exactly how to pray and He prays these prayers for us by praying through us. He not only prays through us then He answers those prayers and makes all things work together for or good. So if you don’t know how to pray that’s okay, sometimes a groan or a sigh will do.
1 thought on “WORDLESS SIGHS”
Love the simplicity, at times trying to figure things out becomes a greater hinderance. The strategies of men, not even mine, if I can but groan and leave it to God, it literally becomes a no brainer.