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.  (27)  Now He who searches the hearts know what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome sometime between the years 55 to 58 A.D.   In the verses we study today, Paul is encouraging us to pray and we are told that the Holy Spirit helps us pray.   I love that Paul uses the pronoun we – “we do not know what we should pray for as we ought” .

What Paul is saying here is that we do not know the will of God so therefore we do not know how to pray.  This inability or insufficiency is met by the indwelling Holy Spirit who knows the will of God and intercedes for us to present the perfect prayer to God for us.  The Spirit also helps our weakness which is the key here:  man’s weakness and the help for man from God.  God reaches out to us always.

In verse 26, Paul writes of our groanings.  He is addressing our deepest emotional level – our deepest feelings which are without articulation.  The Holy Spirit who is distinct from the Father,  interprets these groanings on our behalf and conveys them to the Father who understands the Holy Spirit perfectly and the Spirit perfectly knows the will of the Father.

Paul is addressing not the method of prayer but the content.  We often don’t know how to pray as we should.   We are not, however, left alone.  God has given us the Holy Spirit to intercede for us in our weakness.  The Spirit helps us but we have to do our part.  The Holy Spirit’s prayers for us are always according to God’s will and thus are always answered.

In the beautiful and precious letter to the Romans, Paul writes the dominant theme of the sovereignty of God and gives us great encouragement to pray.