GLEANINGS FROM THE SCRIPTURESTHE DEEP MYSTERY OF PRAYERBy Keith L. Estes“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27) A. B. Simpson writes: “This is the deep mystery of prayer. This is the delicate divine mechanism which, words cannot interpret, and which theology cannot explain, but which the humblest believer knows even when he does not understand. Oh, the burdens that we love to bear and cannot understand! Oh, the inarticulate out-reachings of our hearts for things we cannot comprehend! And yet we know they are an echo from the throne and a whisper from the heart of God. It is often a groan rather than a song, a burden rather than a buoyant wing. But it is a blessed burden, and it is a groan whose undertone is praise and unutterable joy. It is a “groaning, which cannot be uttered.” We could not ourselves express it always, and sometimes we do not understand any more than that God is praying in us, for something that needs His touch and that He understands. And so we can just pour out the fullness of our heart, the burden of our spirit, the sorrow that crushes us, and know that He hears, He loves, He understands, He receives; and He separates from our prayer all that is imperfect, ignorant and wrong, and presents the rest, with the incense of the great High Priest, before the throne on high; and our prayer is heard, accepted, and answered in His name.” It is not necessary to be always speaking to God or always hearing from God, to have communion with Him; there is an inarticulate fellowship more sweet than words. The little child can sit all day long beside its busy mother and, although few words are spoken on either side, and both are busy, the one at his absorbing play, the other at her engrossing work, yet both are in perfect fellowship. He knows that she is there, and she knows that he is all right. So the saint and the Savior can go on for hours in the silent fellowship of love, and he being busy about the most common things, and yet conscious that every little thing he does is touched with the complexion of His presence, and the sense of His approval and a blessing. And then, when pressed with burdens and trouble too complicated to put into words and too mysterious to tell or understand, how sweet it is to fall back into His blessed arms, and just sob out the sorrow that we cannot speak! Oswald Chambers reminds us, “You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer. “ Reference: Streams In The Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman- Zondervan Publishing House. |