Charles Spurgeon on Prayer - Day 5

 PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

Pray in the Holy Spirit

Jude 20

It is a delightful reflection that God observes His people and does not sit as an indifferent spectator of their conflicts and difficulties. The Lord knows our frailties and failures in prayer, yet He is not angry with us. Instead, He is moved to pity us and to love us. Instead of shutting the gates of mercy, He devises ways to bring the lame into His presence. He teaches the ignorant how to pray and strengthens the weak with His own strength. That help is not found in a book or in the repetition of certain words in certain consecrated places, but in the condescending assistance of the Holy Spirit.

I understand that the Holy Spirit is actually willing to help me pray, that He will tell me how to pray, and that when I get to a point where I am at a loss for words and cannot express my desires, He will appear in my extremity and make intercession in me with groanings that cannot be uttered. Jesus in His Gethsemane agony was strengthened by an angel; you are to be strengthened by God Himself. This thought needs no adorning of oratorical expression. Take it as a wedge of gold of Ophir and value it; it is priceless, beyond all price.

God the Holy Spirit condescends to assist you when you are on your knees, and if you cannot put two words together in common speech to men, yet He will help you speak with God. And if at the mercy seat you fail in words, you will not fail in reality, for your heart shall conquer. God requires no words. He never reads our petitions according to the outward expression but reads them according to the inward groaning. He notices the longing, the desiring, the sighing, the crying.

Remember that the outward of prayer is but the shell; the inward prayer is its true kernel and essence. Indeed a prayer wailed forth in the bitter anguish from a desolate spirit--a cry so discordant to human ears--is music to the ear of God. Notice the value of the heart in prayer and be comforted.

Holy Spirit, teach me to pray, strengthen me to pray. My heart is Yours. Intercede for me before the Father's throne. Amen.