Meet Katie Holden

The Holy Spirit is essential in the lives of believers. Acts 2 describes the Spirit entering believers' lives for the first time, and the Christian life as we know it was born. Since then, the Spirit has lived in the hearts of believers and assists them while they are waiting to be made perfect. While we wait for that day, we need a lot of help, especially in the prayer department.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. Our weakness is that we are not yet made perfect. We are not sovereign, we can't see the future, and we don't know what is best. So, if God answered all of our prayers the way we wanted Him to, it would be catastrophic. When we need help to know what to pray for, the Spirit intercedes for us in wordless groanings. Because of these two verses, we know that when our prayers ascend to heaven, they are prayed in accordance to God's will.

I can see this in my life in two ways. First, there are times I think I know what I want. I pray for that thing consistently, but it doesn't happen. Then years later, I look back and realize that I'm so glad that didn't happen the way I originally wanted it to. The Spirit was praying for what was best. Secondly, there are times I don't know what to pray. These are the times when I am distressed and don't have words to express my feelings or when I am praying for a friend who is suffering and don't know what they need. Because of these two verses, I can be confident that the Spirit is interceding and God is listening.

The fact that we sometimes do not know what to pray for is not an excuse not to pray. We must not give up praying, but lean on the Spirit and learn to pray in all occasions.