My Pregnant Condition

by Billy Williams

Romans 8:26-27 (MSG) Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.

I know all too well the “wordless sighs and aching groans” of my spirit. Lying awake at night, my mind spinning and churning in the worries of the day past and the day ahead. I want to pour it all out in a conversation between me and my Maker but I cannot make enough sense of it to form even the simplest sentence. Can God make sense of all that I am thinking if I can’t even bring it to Him? Does my lack of focus dismay or confuse God?

I think not. My ability to put thoughts and words together has absolutely no bearing on God’s ability to understand my needs, worries or thoughts. “He knows us better than we know ourselves...” I can remember so many times in my early Christian walk well-intentioned people trying to “teach” me how to pray... “Here is the formula,” “This is how Jesus prayed;” one kind soul just told me to say The Lord’s Prayer over and over -- you can’t go wrong there. But I need a deeper prayer life, one that lays me at the feet of God. Actually, God went one better and gave me His Spirit to present me before Him and interpret my senseless babble and random thoughts.

God, let me take advantage of Your Spirit and feel the freedom to express the weight of my prayers through wordless sighs and aching groans, knowing that You hear and understand me. Amen.