George Herbert on Prayer (13)

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8.26

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,
   God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
   The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth
Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,
   Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
   The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
   Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
   Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
   Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
   The land of spices; something understood.
                                                            - George Herbert

A few years ago I was preparing for a weekend of meetings, following my normal morning routine, standing in front of the mirror, lathering up for a shave.

Suddenly I became aware of a low rumbling, which, at first, I felt more than heard. I sensed something coming at me from the north, something outside the house, rushing at me. Was it on the highway? If so, it was a very large truck or piece of equipment, because the roar of it grew and the rumble became so strong that it shook our house and rattled the appliances downstairs.

Then it was over, and I thought nothing more of it until, ready for the day, I checked the weather. Only then did I learn that we had experienced a magnitude 5+ earthquake which originated in Maryland, charged across the Potomac, and shook everything for miles – including me.

This is what prayer is like. Or, rather, what it can be like. Prayer is the sound of the Spirit of God, rushing toward heaven with our frail lyrics, and tapping into a power that can change everything.

We don’t know how to pray as we ought. So our feeble efforts to “move the hands of God” through prayer have no power of their own to change anything. No one and nothing need fear our prayers.

But the Spirit of God, as we have seen, takes up our prayers in groanings which are too deep for words. And it’s a good thing they are. For when the Spirit groaned aloud on Mount Sinai, with crashes of thunder and loud, blaring trumpets, the people of God were terrified and feared for their lives.

Christians sometimes insist they’ve “heard the voice of God.” This is nonsense. I do not deny that the Spirit communicates with us – through His Word and by prompts, reminders, piques, cues, and prods. But He does not speak, for if He spoke, we could not bear the power of His voice bearing down upon us. When the Father spoke on the Mount of Transfiguration, even those closest to the Lord Jesus trembled in abject fear.

But when we pray, the Spirit takes up our pleadings and conveys them, in a song of His own, full of power, into the very presence of Christ and God. And there, as He sings and groans our words to our Father and His, our prayers encounter the power that makes all things new, turns the world rightside-up, and advances the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Our prayers have power, the power of God’s Spirit. The more we lisp our prayers toward heaven, the more the Spirit will intone them, with groanings too deep to be uttered, into the sovereign ears of our loving heavenly Father.

And then all heaven will break loose on earth.

Consider: How does knowing the Spirit carries your prayers to God encourage you to spend more time in prayer? Share your thoughts about this with a Christian friend.

T. M.’s books on prayer include God’s Prayer Program, a guide to learning how to pray the psalms; The Psalms for Prayer, in which all the psalms are set up to guide you in how to pray them; and If Men Will Pray, a serious attempt to call men of faith to greater diligence in prayer. Follow the links provided here to purchase these from our online store.