Today’s scripture: Romans 8:26-27 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Ben Lamb):
My editor has kindly allowed me to be tardy on writing this Be Still. God has a way of working through all things, even my tardiness. I believe God knew that it would be extremely helpful for my own sake. Allow me to explain.
Most of the time, the scriptural passage that I am assigned is one that I can relate to because of a previous experience or from thinking about someone else. At the time I received this assignment, I would have viewed this passage very differently and it would not mean the same to me as I write this a few weeks later. Circumstances in life change.
Currently, I’m dealing with a stressful situation with someone who is in a difficult predicament; something that never should have happened. The situation has put a fairly large amount of unwanted responsibility on my shoulders. To top it off, the person responsible for all of this has not been very gracious about the whole matter. Although I’m highly frustrated at times, I find that I’m still experiencing a sense of inner peace of my own. Today’s scripture helps me to understand the source of this peace.
The situation I’m facing is one in which I have no concrete thoughts as to how to best pray for it. However, Paul reminds me that the Holy Spirit takes over the task of figuring out what prayers need to be said on my behalf. When I don’t know what I ought to pray, “the Spirit helps me” and “the Spirit intercedes for me” because “the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” Sometimes I just say out loud, “God, I don’t know how to pray for this situation. Thanks, Holy Spirit, for doing it for me. I’ll help out here and there as I can, but you’re going to have to do the majority of praying on it for me at the moment.”
Thought for the day: When my prayers have blank spots, the Holy Spirit fills them in.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.