The Spirit Helps Us
Romans 8:26-27 – Teach Us to Pray, Part 6
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 6th, 2026 (am)
I don’t go shopping very often. Jean might hear that and wonder why I would add very often. And that’s a fair question. But I do stop by Walgreens occasionally to pick up something I need in my car or my office. And whenever I do, I’m immediately asked if I need help. I’ve often wondered how it shows. But also, I’m routinely asked with a tone that doesn’t sound like I’m being offered assistance to find something I’m looking for as much as to help me figure out why I’m there at all, like it seems to them that I wasn’t expecting to see this sort of store when I entered the front doors.
I actually appreciate their help a lot, though, because it saves time trying to figure out where to find my item, aided only by those signs at the end of each aisle that tell you what you’ll find there. I’ve stared at those signs for long periods entirely unable to imagine which category my item fits in. So, I always welcome any sort of assistance like this when it’s offered.
We can chuckle at a scene like this because, in some way, we can all identify with it. But I doubt if many of us would hear it and say: You know, my prayer life is a lot like that, like I’m looking for things and don’t know where to find them, like I often wonder if I’m even in the right aisle, or searching in the right place.
For instance (Stott 245), in a season of heavy trial, is it best to seek deliverance from it? That’s surely my heart’s desire. But with all the amazing promises in Scripture of the rich qualities that are developed within us during such seasons, should I be seeking strength to endure it? Or perhaps I should just turn my attention toward the outcome and seek God’s promises? And what about when I’m praying for others? Do I pray in the same way, or differently, or differently at different times?
What is God’s will in this situation or that? How do I know that, and feel confident that I know it, and then pray in accord with it? How can I ever be sure about any of that? Everything in this world is just so out of sorts; we just read that in the four verses leading into our text (22-25). We groan under the weight of it all, just hanging onto the rich and reassuring hope that’s generated by having our down payment on the better world to come in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Now we’re about to hear that, just as our Christian hope sustains us, so does the Holy Spirit (Stott 244). He comes to our aid (Moo 2018 545). He does just what Jesus promised He would do when He taught His disciples about the Holy Spirit in the upper room (Joh.14-16). Let’s consider this work under two headings.
Toward Understanding the Help of the Spirit
Paul states it pretty clearly. 26 Likewise, meaning, in a way notably similar to how our hope (24-25) helps us in these heavy days of living in two different realms (1-11), the Spirit helps us in our weakness. What is our weakness here? More generally, it’s the ambiguity and frailty of our [life between these two worlds] (Stott 244). But more specifically, Paul identifies it right here. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought. There it is, the problem we identified a few minutes ago. Not only do we have our feet planted in two different worlds, the now and the not-yet, but it’s like we’ve been given conflicting orders in prayer. We’ve been told that if we ask anything according to his will he hears [and answers] us (1Jo.5:14-15; cf. Joh.14:14). But we’ve also been told to ask, seek, and knock for all the good gifts we need in this life (Mat.7:7-11), for what we shall eat and what we shall drink and what we shall wear (Mat.6:25-34). We’ve been told to pour out [our heart] before him (Psa.62:8). So, which is it? How do we decide? We don’t know how to put it all together. We just can’t discern God’s will with clarity.
So, there’s our weakness. Now here’s our help: the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Some say there’s a chiasm here, an intentional structuring in which the second part defines [the first more precisely] (Schreiner 435):
A the Spirit helps us
B in our weakness
B’ for we do not know what to pray for as we ought
A’ but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words
That’s helpful, but there’s more to understand here.
What are these groanings too deep for words with which the Spirit intercedes for us, helps us? Believe me, a wide range of options have been explored toward answering this question. Are the groanings audible? Perhaps, but not necessarily. Whatever it means that the whole creation has been groaning (22), it’s probably not describing intentional, audible sighs….
And what does it mean that they’re too deep for words? This word literally means not to be uttered, or not expressed in words (esl). The point Paul [seems to be] making is not that [these] groans cannot be put into words, but that in fact they are not [put into words]. They are unexpressed, rather than [they are] inexpressible (Stott 245).
And they belong to the Spirit himself. This isn’t just the Spirit praying through our groanings (23), although this word is surely chosen to echo our deep longing, and that of the whole creation (22), for the day of resurrection (23)—for our full and final freedom from this sin-and-suffering-saturated world.
So, the Spirit—aware of our weakness, our not knowing what to pray for as we ought, our not knowing the will of God with any clarity—intercedes for us, himself groaning, feeling with us the weight of our weakness (Stott 245), without uttering words but clearly intended as intercession to the Father on our behalf.
27 And he who searches hearts, namely, God the Father, Who searches and knows all our hearts (cf. Pro.15:11; Psa.139), knows what is the mind of the Spirit regarding intercession, because the Spirit reliably intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So, the Father receives it and answers, just as He’s promised. God knows what the Spirit intends, and there is perfect harmony between the two, because it is in accordance with God’s will that the Spirit intercedes for the saints. There is one in heaven, the Son of God, who “intercedes on our behalf,” defending us from all charges that might be brought against us, guaranteeing salvation in the day of judgment (8:34). But there is also, Paul asserts in these verses, an intercessor “in the heart,” the Spirit of God, who effectively prays to the Father on our behalf throughout the difficulties and uncertainties of our lives here on earth (Moo 2018 548-9). So, [t]he children of God have two divine intercessors. Christ is their intercessor in the court of heaven (cf. v.34; Heb.7:25; 1Jo.2:1) and [t]he Holy Spirit is their intercessor in the theatre of their own hearts (cf. Joh.14:16, 17) (Murray 311).
And have you noticed that this passage leads us directly into one of the most familiar verses in the Bible? 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. No wonder all things are working out for our good: the Spirit is effectively praying for us so that the will of God will be accomplished in our lives, and we know that God identifies with and cares about our experiences of suffering, which provides us with deep comfort (Schreiner 439).
Toward Responding Well to the Spirit’s Help
So, what does this mean for us? I hope it’s already begun to dawn on us. We resonate deeply with the idea that we do not know what to pray for as we ought. Yet, we’ve heard the call of God’s Word to ask, seek, and knock (Mat.7:7-11), to pray without ceasing (1Th.5:17), to remember Who we’re talking to and how needy we are as we address Him. I believe we’ve begun to understand the seriousness of our need for prayer. But that can also leave us in a place where we feel our weakness, the precise weakness that Paul describes here, our ignorance of the will of God and how that comes to bear on our grasp of the broken world all around us that fuels our incessant need for incessant prayer. We might even become hopeless as a result, despite the hope of resurrection that’s so clearly reaffirmed to us in the verses just ahead of today’s text (24-25).
But we have a Helper! We have a Helper Who sees and understands our weakness! We have a Helper Who feels our weakness with us, groaning on our behalf in much the same way as we ourselves groan under the heaviness of our circumstances. We groan in weakness. Our Helper does not. He groans on our behalf, in un-worded, mind-to-mind communication with the Father Who already has the Son speaking into His ear in our defense. And our Helper’s intercession is in perfect accord with God’s will, because He Himself is God—God resident within us, feeling the depth of our need, our weakness, surely more keenly than even we ourselves feel it. And that is what drives His intercession on our behalf before the Father
It’s hard to know whether the Spirit’s intercession is focused on the same issues we’re praying about, even in our lack of knowing God’s will, or whether His eyes are fixed on us, bringing our weakness before the Father and seeking a knowledge of His will to take root and grow within our hearts. But I see no reason why it couldn’t include both. The Spirit intercedes for us… according to the will of God in order to help us in our weakness. And surely our weakness encompasses not just a lack of knowing God’s will in the circumstances that surround us, but also that same lack within our own hearts.
When we go to prayer, then, here is good reason why we can do so with confidence (Heb.4:16). We can lean hard into the ministry of the Spirit with regard to all things that concern us, confessing that knowing and understanding the will of God and praying according to it is our highest priority, our greatest joy, in prayer. And we can do so knowing that the Holy Spirit is praying for us in just the way that the Father will willingly hear and answer, toward bringing glory to Himself (Joh.14:13).
Conclusion
For every one of us, each and every one whose hope (26-27) is fixed in Christ, we have a Helper in prayer! And it’s no One less than God Himself, the Holy Spirit, praying perfectly on our behalf. This help comes only to those who’ve trusted Christ as Savior, but it comes to all those who’ve trusted in Him. Let that sink in for a moment, then let’s ask God to help us rely on our Helper so we can grow in prayer.
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Resources
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NEXT SUNDAY: Teach Us to Pray, Part 7, Grant to Your Servants..., Acts 4:23–31