Our helper in everything! (Even in prayer).

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On many occasions, we pray to God and receive a delayed response. It is the Holy Spirit who not only intercedes for us with unspeakable groans before God, but also empowers us and helps us persevere in prayer.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to abide with you forever: 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, because he dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:16-17

In the text we read today, the Lord promises that he would send us a faster to be with us forever. The Holy Spirit, who I am, is our relationship with God, and apart from many other functions, he also guides us on how to pray and how much to pray to God.

26 And in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Romans 8:26

We generally tend to pray only when we are in difficulties or when we are faced with various needs, but we can also pray to cultivate our relationship with God. Just imagine if God gave us everything we ask for immediately; I am sure we would never learn to depend on him, much less learn to develop the gift of patience.

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this I pleaded with the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.

2 Corinthians 12:7-8

It says that the apostle Paul asked the Lord several times to remove his thorn in the flesh, and God answered him, but the answer was a resounding no. This shows us that these three times were perhaps three prolonged moments in which the apostle Paul robbed his father to give him relief, and yet the Lord answered him, but did not remove that thorn.

Sometimes we pray for a long time with certain requests and feel that our words seem to go unheard or simply go unanswered. This does not mean that we should give up, no. We must persist faithfully and strongly in prayer until we understand what the Lord wants to teach us through different circumstances. God listens attentively, hears and attends to our pleas, and it is the Holy Spirit of God, our companion, who gives us strength, who intercedes for us, who enables us to continue praying perseveringly even when we do not feel the Lord's involvement in our lives. Every time we pray, let us also remember to ask God for His Holy Spirit to give us the strength and help to persevere in prayer and supplication before Him.