Lorenzo Palon

"For we were saved in such a hope. But a hope that is seen is not real hope, for who hopes for what he actually sees? But if we hope for something we do not see, we keep on patiently waiting for it. In the same way the Spirit, too, is helping us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself pleads for us with unspeakable yearnings." - Romans 8:24-26 (Williams New Testament)

Another great thing that is going to help us in times of struggle is the fact that the Second Coming is closer today than it was when we went to bed last night. I don’t know when it’s going to come. I don’t know how it’s going to come. I’m not sure of all the events that are going to precede it or accompany it. But I know the eastern sky is going to roll back one day. I know the trumpet of the archangel is going to come one day, and I know I’m going to meet Him in the air. The Bible calls that our Blessed Hope (cf. Titus 2:13), and it refers to the Second Coming. Our destiny is sure! Scoffers are aplenty today and are saying, ‘things don’t look good, the Lord is not coming. It’s been too many years now, and things are just not working out. God just tarried so long, the Second Coming just won’t occur’. Funny, the very fact that people deny that it’s going to happen is evidence that it’s going to happen (cf. 2nd Pet. 3:2-4). Friend, we don’t know when, we don’t know how, we don’t know where, but the Second Coming is imminent, and it’s just a matter of time.

Starting with verse 26, there are two more encouragements for believers in a world that is awash in sin and rebellion and filled with overwhelming pain. What can we do? Along with our adoption as sons and our hope of the Second Coming, comes this: that the Holy Spirit is helping us in our weakness. This is a present middle verbal form, which means the Spirit doesn’t just help us when we’re good or when we’re on a ‘mountain-top’ experience; the Spirit is continually helping us. And the middle voice here means that He is personally, intimately involved in the process of helping us.

What does our weakness mean? Well, it could mean the weakness of Romans chapter 7; trying to be religious without the power of the Holy Spirit, or trying to live the Christian life in our own strength, and what a disaster that brings. Or it could be the pain and sorrow in Romans 8 that comes in a fallen world, as all creation groans and agonizes, and even the believer groans. Or it could be our own personal choice to sin, to be apathetic and walk away from our God. All of these weaknesses, I think, are included in this. The Spirit is helping and continuing to help us in our weaknesses.

So, “we do not know how to pray as we should”—there’s a worn-out cliché that says, “the worst thing that God could do for most of us is to answer our selfish prayers.” It’s true, for we are praying for all the wrong things. We are praying for material things, things for ourselves, things for our consumption, and pleasure. And we know these things pull our hearts away from the Lord. And yet we pray for them. I think there’s a biblical precedent that believers do not know how to pray. And I would even be so bold as to say that Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, did not know exactly how to pray when He asked the Father to remove the cup of suffering that had been planned before the foundation of the world, that He should die on behalf of men. And yet, He entreats the Father three times that He wouldn’t have to go to the cross. With all reverence, I think Jesus, in His humanity, was struggling with what to pray.

Paul, in 2nd Corinthians 12:7-10, prays for the thorn in his flesh to be removed. Three times he prayed, and God said, ‘No, Paul, this is better for you and for me.’ Paul did not know how to pray. Also, I think of James chapter 2, where we’re praying for things from God, but we’re praying to spend them on our own lust. And we don’t know how to pray. Often, we don’t know what God’s will is. But the Spirit is going to help us when we don’t know how to pray. And how will the Spirit help us? The Spirit Himself pleads or intercedes for us. The Holy Spirit is nothing less than part of the Trinitarian God. He is deity, and He lives within each one of us. And He prays for us, which is what this passage is all about.

Think about this: not only does God the Spirit indwell us, but the resurrected and glorified Jesus Christ, sitting on the right hand of God the Father, intercedes for us (cf. 1 John 2:1). We have an Advocate; a Paraclete (the same word used for the Holy Spirit) with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. We’ve got the resurrected Jesus Christ interceding for us, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit interceding for us, and God the Father sent both of them for us. We’ve got the whole Trinitarian God on our side. Hallelujah!