Connect360: When We Don’t Know What to Pray

  |  Source: GC2 Press

Lesson 4 in the Connect360 unit “Prayer That Moves Heaven: Power With Purpose” focuses on Romans 8:26-27.

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  • Lesson 4 in the Connect360 unit “Prayer That Moves Heaven: Power With Purpose” focuses on Romans 8:26-27.

We don’t have to be prayer warriors to be effective pray-ers. Prayer does not come naturally to us. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1). It takes time to learn how to pray. Even though prayer is simply talking with God, it is still not something that always comes easily to us. That’s one of the reasons God has given us the Holy Spirit to live in us and with us. He helps us to pray effectively.

Prayer isn’t performance art. Whether our prayers are made in private or in public, the fact that the Holy Spirit is there to help us means we don’t have to “perform” for God. Knowing the Spirit is going to take our feebleness in prayer and make it intelligible gives us the freedom to be ourselves in prayer. We can talk with God with the voice and words we always use in casual conversation with friends and family. Because God searches our hearts, we don’t have to pretend with him, either. We can tell God what we are really feeling at the time. If we’re angry, sad, confused or any other feeling, we can be honest with God and ourselves as we talk with him.

Never alone

We are never alone. The presence of the Holy Spirit within us helping us to pray lets us know we are never alone. Jesus promised us in Matthew 28: 20b, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Sometimes, having a difficult thing to say is made easier when a friend is with us. As the hymn reminds us, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” We have Jesus present with usm because the Holy Spirit lives in us.

God has a plan. Knowing that the Holy Spirit’s intercession for us in prayer is part of God’s plan tells us that God wants us to pray to him. And God wants us to be assured that the Spirit is helping us in our prayers.

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